Sweden Explores 2026 Winter Olympic Bid

(ATR) Around the Rings is told that Stockholm will decide in April whether to bid for the 2026 Games.

Swedish NOC president Stefan Lindeberg tells ATR that a feasibility study, conducted over recent months by city authorities, is now complete. The results will be announced next month.

"We will have a decision by the City of Stockholm during the first weeks of April," he said.

He declined to comment further on the feasibility study.

Sweden’s sports chiefs and the city council have spent the past year mulling another tilt at the Olympics after Stockholm withdrew from the 2022 contest due to a lack of financial guarantees. The city dropped out of the race in January 2014 after the city’s ruling Moderate party failed to back bid plans.

Last week, Switzerland made strides towards a bid for the 2026 Games. The Swiss NOC said 85 member federations of the sport parliament voted on Friday to push ahead with a bid.

An information meeting for cities and regions will be held on April 20 in Lausanne on the sidelines of the SportAccord Convention. Candidate cities are invited to submit their bids by the end of 2016.

A Swiss NOC 2026 task force will evaluate the cities before a final decision is made on whether to submit an Olympic bid by "latest" September 2017. Switzerland’s 2022 Olympic bid proposal from St Moritz/Davos was rejected in a referendum.

Formal 2026 bidding applications are not due with the IOC until the second half of next year. Before that, the IOC will look to engage with NOCs about possible bids on an informal basis as part of the new invitation phase.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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