Spain’s Barcelona makes bid to host 2030 Winter Olympics

THE International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced today (January 10) that three cities have expressed their interest in hosting the 2030 Winter Olympic Games.

In addition to Salt Lake City in the United States and the northern Japanese city of Sapporo, Barcelona in Spain has also put forward their interest to host the coveted international competition.

Two of the potential cities have already hosted the Winter Games – being held in Salt Lake City in 2002 and Sapporo in 1972. Barcelona, which has paired up with the Pyrenees in its bid, had hosted the Summer Olympics in 1992.

Under recently-introduced IOC rules, host cities have been granted a greater deal of flexibility in organising the Games and are encouraged to utilise existing facilities to cut down on overall costs. Due to the limited options to host some of the events, a source indicates that Barcelona’s bid includes holding some of the skiing events in Andorra.

Octavian Morariu, the Chair of the IOC Future Host Commission for the Winter Games, had fuelled speculation on the interested parties by stating that the IOC had been in dialogue with “a number of interested parties” for the last two years, specifically naming Salt Lake City, Sapporo and Barcelona.

Beijing has officially been named to host the 2022 Winter Games, where the 2026 Winter Olympics will be hosted in Milan with important participation with the renowned Italian mountain resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo. As Euro Weekly News understands, no date has yet been set for the designation of the 2030 Games.

Founded in 1924, the Winter Olympic Games is an acclaimed international event that is held once every four years and attracts the highest level of talent in the sporting world.