IOC Chief Defends Olympic Bid Process

(ATR) Thomas Bach has defended the 2026 bid procedure and confirms a "very limited number of candidates" will be put forward for the vote in September next year.

In a 55-minute press conference, wrapping three days of executive board meetings in Lausanne, Bach spoke about decisions made across a range of subjects including Russian doping, Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022, Paris 2024 and governance issues linked to weightlifting and boxing federations.

But his standout comments came on the 2026 contest, now down to five cities after Graz and Sion abandoned their campaigns in recent months.

Calgary, Erzurum in Turkey, Sapporo, Stockholm and a potential Italian bid remain. But with a referendum due in Calgary and government election in Sweden in the autumn, the field may narrow again if political support falters for those bids.

Bach dismissed any notion that he was concerned about the current state of the 2026 Winter Olympic race, instead saying "we are pretty happy" with the five-city field of contenders.

In what was likely a dig at FIFA’s 2026 World Cup bidding contest, which featured only the United bid – U.S., Canada and Mexico – versus Morocco, Bach said: "No, we are not concerned. Which major organizer not only in sports but in big events is in the position to have a dialogues and to speak with five interested countries or cities around the world?

"If you look at the numbers of other procedures you can maybe see why we are pretty happy with the status of the candidature procedure and even more so this is very open and transparent.

"I guess we are the only sporting organization publishing the host city contract at full length to every detail. This gives the basis for the interested cities to look into it, whether the time is right or whether there are other considerations or they need clarifications."

He added: "It’s a good basis for us to also give them advice whether it’s a good time, whether their plan can be adjusted and how to reduce costs and also to explain and learn what the benefits are of organizing the Olympic Games."

He cited discussions in Sapporo about whether the city should run for the 2026 or 2030 Olympics; a decision is due in the autumn, which may see the Japanese city drop its 2026 quest.

"The advantage of this new procedure is that these questions can be dealt with in an open and transparent dialogue between the interested city and the IOC," Bach added.

In October the IOC executive board will select the cities to enter the year-long candidature phase.

Bach raised the prospect of the IOC trimming one or two cities from the race, or ensuring that only two or three are ultimately recommended for the vote at the Milan Session in 2019.

"I will not now make the mistake of giving the number. But to say we have a very limited number of candidates to be proposed to the session for election because this again is in line with our reforms – we want the procedure to be less expensive," he said.

"We don’t want the cities to have to make many presentations and we don’t want cities to make presentations where they cannot win at the end, where investment is lost."

Bach was keen to emphasize how the IOC has made the Winter Olympics more appealing for global cities through a revamp of its bid process and set of New Norm measures to slash costs and increase flexibility.

For the 2026 race, each of the five cities have 80 percent existing venues in their Olympic plans. For the 2018 and 2022 contests, this figure was 60 percent.

The budget for the 2026 Games was down from $2 billion to around $1.7 billion, with an increased IOC contribution of $925 million for the successful 2026 host.

Written and reported by Mark Bissonin Lausanne

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