Lausanne (AFP)
Sweden is "totally ready to host the Olympics," Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Löfven told the press on Sunday, the day the International Olympic Committee (IOC) designated the host city for the Winter Olympics 2026.
"Sweden is ready, ready to host the Olympic Winter Games in 2026 and the Swedish government is fully supportive," said Löfven after a meeting of the Swedish delegation with the IOC President Thomas Bach.
Swedish high jumper Stefan Holm, 2004 Olympic champion in Athens and now a member of the IOC, said "Sweden deserve the Games - Norway has had them twice, so it would be fair for Sweden to have them. in turn".
"Sweden is economically and politically stable," said Holm, a member of the delegation, including Princess Victoria of Sweden.
The head of the Italian government, Giuseppe Conte, will also be present Monday in Lausanne and will also speak to the hundred members of the IOC before a decision to be announced at 18:00 (16:00 GMT).
In the absence of Conte on Sunday, which will not arrive until Monday in Lausanne, the Italian delegation was led Sunday by Giovanni Malago, president of the Italian Olympic Committee, patron of the candidacy and future president of the organizing committee if Milan the wins.
"We have a fantastic bid," Malago said after the meeting with Bach at the Olympic Museum.
"This is a unique opportunity for the implementation of the new Agenda-2020 standard, because Milan represents not only for me, but for the rest of Europe, the best city in Europe and perhaps in the world, "he added.
While Italy hosted the Winter Olympic Games twice (in Cortina d'Ampezzo in 1956 and Torino in 2006), Sweden only hosted the summer Olympics in 1912 in Stockholm.
? 2019 AFP