Stockholm Happy With Status in 2026 Bid Race

(ATR) Leaders of the Stockholm 2026 bid for the Winter Olympics tell Around the Rings they are happy to let the bid fly under the radar as it quietly works to make the next phase in the current bid cycle.

Richard Brisius, chief executive of the Stockholm 2026 bid, visited Jakarta for the Asian Games to learn from the event and meet other National Olympic Committees. He took some time to speak with ATR about the status of the bid.

Stockholm 2026 is in a much different position than it was in the spring of 2017, when a lack of political support threatened the existence of the bid. Since then, Brisius says bid leaders have worked to "explain our concept" to political leaders across Sweden.

Brisius said that the bid’s funding model has essentially explained itself to politicians, which has eased getting broad consensus on the project. Stockholm 2026 now has support from city councils throughout the Stockholm area, in Are where alpine events will be held, and Falun where Nordic events will be staged. Political support even extends to Latvia, where sliding events are planned.

On the national level, Sweden will hold elections next month. Where there was once worry, there is now cautious optimism. Brisius said that knowing who will be in power for the next four years will be useful for the bid, since that time covers the candidature phase, and the beginnings of forming a potential organizing committee.

"The UN Secretary General was a Swede in the 1950's, Dag Hammarskjöld, and he had this saying ‘I want to do a job, not talk about it not even afterwards,’" Brisius said. "Maybe that plays with us or against us in this, but we may operate the bid under the radar, but we are going forward in a good way."

The 2026 bid cycle is still in the newly formed "dialogue phase" where interested cities can consult with the IOC about bidding for the Olympics, without committing to being a candidate city.

So far, three bids Graubünden and Sion in Switzerland, and Innsbruck in Austria have withdrawn from the process after losing referendums. Another potential bid from Graz, Austria withdrew citing a lack of political support.

Calgary, the site of the 1988 Olympics, is facing a hotly contested referendum in November, and skepticism from within parts of the city government. Italy considered three bids for the 2026 Olympics but have combined them in an effort to strengthen its chances, although criticisms have reportedly been lobbied by leaders in Milan and Turin.

Sapporo, the only Asian city considering a 2026 bid, is still deciding whether if it will continue its bid or opt for 2030 instead. The other bid in the dialogue phase is from Erzurum, Turkey.

That leaves Stockholm’s bid, which will not require a public vote, in a position to continue learning and improving without needing to generate headlines, Brisius says. For now, Stockholm is committed to producing the best project to advance to the candidature phase this October at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires.

"For us, as the city of Stockholm we [spent] billions [building winter sports venues] over many years, so we have everything," Brisius said. "So that’s a perfect match with the new way that the IOC wants to run the Olympics by not building anything really, so the need for public financing is not there."

To host the Olympics Brisius says that Stockholm will only need to build a multi-use ice arena and a ski track. However, both of those venues will be built no matter the outcome of the bid. Thus, any public funding needed for the bid is not expressly tied to its success, making it an easier sell to the public and politicians.

The city will take advantage of existing multi-use arenas such as the 60,000-seat Friends Arena for ceremonies and the 35,000-seat Tele2 Arena for short track speed skating and figure skating. The latter, which has a retractable roof, is primarily a football arena but can be converted to have an ice surface.

Even the Stockholm Olympic Stadium built for the 1912 Games will be used in the 2026 bid. Big air events will be held in the arena, which is the oldest Olympic stadium still in use today.

Brisius described the bid as a "15 year project" that focuses not just on staging an Olympics, but how to integrate the seven years after the Games into Stockholm’s development.

"All the investments are very small in comparison to what we’ve seen with the Olympics anyway, so that’s what I’d say is the key," Brisius said. "We gradually prepared for this."

Homepage photo: Getty Images

Written by Aaron Bauerwith interview conducted in Jakarta

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