With the news that the Swedish government supports the winter OLYMPICS and Paralympics in Stockholm, Åre leave the campaign on Friday filed its final application to the International olympic committee (IOC). The data is located together with the reports of the IOC utvärderingskommission do after their visit in Sweden and Italy to the foundation of the IOC members when they vote on the host city in Lausanne on 24 June.
” I think it will be a close race, but now that the Stockholm Åre has guarantees from the government in place has a very good chance. The IOC wishes to Sweden, ” says journalist Robert Livingstone, who works for the website gamesbids.com and has a long experience of writing about the olympic movement and OLYMPIC campaigns.
evaluating the team visits both in Sweden and Italy. One of his strongest impressions from the sweden trip was the lack of interest from the swedes and he was surprised to find the IOC-the visit is not highlighted more by the media. Livingstone puts this in the context of the overall low interest in arranging the winter OLYMPICS, which he believes is due to the bad reputation that the IOC received due to corruption, spräckta budgets and costly games.
That the IOC now by the reform package Agenda 2020 is trying to preen on the rumor, and arrange sustainable lågbudgetspel does not seem to have been presented to all.
“Many trusts simply not on the IOC and it is only when a city has arranged this new type of OS that we know if it works,” says Livingstone.
He believes that Sweden’s and Italy’s applications are similar to each other in many ways. The Italian budget is marginally greater than the Swedish, and in both cases it is about an OS with a large distance between the tävlingsorterna.
in some cases you will need to fly if you want to travel between tävlingsorterna Stockholm, Falun, sweden, Åre, and Sigulda in Latvia, where the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton to be determined. The Italian concept is the four tävlingsområdena closer to each other.
– But since you will be directed to car and bus on small roads in the mountains it will take time to travel between places even in this, ” says Livingstone.
Sweden has chosen to place some branches in another country think he should not be seen as a disadvantage.
” Italy also had this opportunity, but, instead, to use the modern bobanläggningen in St Moritz, Switzerland if you choose to renovate the old one that is in Cortina d’ampezzo for many millions. That Sweden does not spend these money on a new facility is fully in line with the IOC’s new norm, ” says Livingstone.
is that there is a strong desire among many italians to host the OLYMPICS again, something Livingstone was able to observe during his visit.
Italy’s big advantage is that there is a strong desire among many italians to host the OLYMPICS again, think OS-journalist Robert Livingstone. Photo: Claudio Furlan/Lapresse
– Compared to Sweden we were greeted by a completely different enthusiasm. The studies that the IOC made shows also that the aid in Italy is greater, ” says Livingstone, who think that the fact that Italy had the winter games in 2006 (Turin) and also arranged 1956 (Cortina) may be the country in the keg.
“Sweden has never had the olympics and I believe that many within the sport feel that it is time,” he says.
at the olympic site ”Around the rings”, which is also the conclusion follows the OLYMPIC movement. Also he was on location in Stockholm, Åre and sweden to follow the working party, and also noted the lukewarm interest for the OS issue, but he notes that this not only applies to Sweden. Several countries have withdrawn their candidacies, and in some cases then it has become the no in the referendums.
Farek think this is mainly due to the IOC not managed to communicate its reform agenda and its new attitude, something that he points out that the IOC-bass Thomas Bach admitted.
– Durable and cheap games could very well be the IOC’s ambition, but either people understand it not, or they don’t believe it. It is for this reason that Switzerland, which had a fantastic application, and even Calgary in Canada and some countries dropped out of, ” said Farek, who notes that the IOC just as the face of the vote around the winter olympics in 2022, when Beijing won the fight against Almaty in Kazakhstan, the only two candidates.
for that reason, he believes that the games in 2026 is critical for the IOC. Italy or Sweden, will become ”guinea pigs” to show that it is possible to arrange the games in a completely new way and thereby attract more stakeholders in the future.
between applications and points to the large distances between the tävlingsorterna.
” But I have all of the understanding that Sweden chose to put the bob, luge and skeleton in Sigulda. I know that the IOC asked the swedes not to build a new plant in Sweden, ” said Farek.
the IOC’s utvärderingskommission on-site at the San Siro. The football stadium will have the opening ceremony and where have the italians a problem. Photo: Antonio Calanni/AP
As Robert Livingstone, he’s pointing out to visitors no matter which country wins, get prepare on time-consuming journeys, and it can be difficult to follow the multiple branches on the same day. He also points to the emergence of questions about the opening ceremony in Milan, to be held at the football stadium San Siro.
” Only a quarter of all the contestants will stay in Milan. How do you do with all the others who want to attend the opening ceremony? You should find housing for them, or should I put them on a bus for four hours in the middle of the night, ask Farek, which does not exclude that there will be changes made in the winning concept when the vote in Lausanne on 24 June is over.
and believe in a steady and uncertain struggle. He is not sure that the fact that Italy had the OLYMPICS as late as 2006 only is a disadvantage.
– There are two ways to look at it there. Either you think it has gone for a short time, or so does that mean it worked good then and in that 20 years is long enough: we put the games there again, ” he says.
Both Farek and Livingstone see it as a big advantage for Sweden that the government’s guarantee of safety, even if it was delayed, arrived on site in good time. The longer the delay, the greater the problem it had been for the Swedish campaign.
The weaker popular support in Sweden, and the Alps is the classic ground for vinteridrott believe they are talking to the italians advantage.
“But if the IOC members will find that it has two equally strong applications to choose from, I think the fact that Sweden never organized the winter games may be to determine,” says Farek.
