Geneva Wants Winter Olympics for 2018

The Geneva public will likely have to approve any Olympic bid. (ATR)(ATR) Backers of a bid from Geneva, Switzerland say they will proceed for now, despite a Swiss Olympic Association decision to forego a 2018 bid.

Leaders of the Geneva tourism community are behind the bid. Marco Torriani, manager of the Hotel du Rhone; Jean-Pierre Jobin, president of the Geneva Tourism Bureau; and Jeremie Robyr, president of Tourism Valais lead the committee.

GEJO 2018 – for Geneva Jeux Olympiques – launched its plans with a pair of press conferences in Geneva and Zurich on Friday morning.

“We want most of all to initiate an exploration [of the project], so that people can just consider it, without restriction,” Jobin tells Swiss media.

But the Swiss Olympic Association has already considered a 2018 bid – and rejected it.

SOA president Jorg Schild announced in November that his NOC would not bid on the 2018 Games.

Switzerland fulfils most of the criteria necessary to a Winter Games candidature, he said, but the federal structure of the Swiss government makes it difficult to line up the full support from all levels of government and the community that is indispensable to a bid.

He also added that the Swiss appetite for winter sports is already saturated, and an Olympic bid could hardly bring growth to the industry.

The plans for Geneva are likely to face a referendum in the city and the canton. In 2002, a bid from national capital Bern for 2010 was sunk when voters in the city rejected an Olympic bid, even after the IOC had confirmed Bern as one of four finalists in the race.

The Geneva group is well aware of the SOA’s objections, NOC spokeswoman Claudia Imhasly is quoted in Swiss media. And the objections remain unchanged, she adds.

The first phase of funding for the Geneva bid, $175,000, is coming from betting company Sport-Toto.

Lake Geneva links Geneva and Lausanne. (ATR)While Geneva has no confirmed support from sport venues, GEJO leaders say they have contacted ski operators in the cantons of Valais and Vaud. Geneva is in Geneva canton, Sion is in Valais, which has bid for the Games before, and Vaud is home to Lausanne the IOC headquarters city.

The IOC announced the timetable for the 2018 Winter Games race. The application period will run from July to October 2009, with the IOC vote in July 2011.

Other cities with an interest in bidding are Munich, Germany, Tromso, Norway, PyeongChang, South Korea, Harbin, China along with possible bids from Bulgaria, France and the U.S.

Written by Maggie Lee

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