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IOC official Karl Stoss has taken a step forward in the search for venues for the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games
Photo: Stephanie Lecocq / REUTERS
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has set the course for a double award of the 2030 and 2034 Winter Olympics next year. As the IOC announced, France's bid for 2030 qualified for a dialogue with the committee, in which the plans for the implementation of the major event are to be concretized. At an IOC meeting in July 2024, the official awarding of the Winter Games to the French, who will already host the Summer Games in the capital Paris in 2024, would probably take place.
The decision comes as a surprise: in addition to the French Alps, Sweden and Switzerland were also under discussion as hosts. While Switzerland can continue to recommend itself for the 2038 Winter Games, at least in a "private dialogue", everything currently indicates that the Games will return to the French Alps after 1992 in Albertville – even if the Austrian Karl Stoss, who heads the IOC commission to find future hosts, still urged patience: "The cities must now do their homework. The decision hasn't been made yet, the work isn't over yet," Stoss said. We still have six months to make a decision."
For the year 2034, as expected, it all boils down to Salt Lake City, Utah. The host city of 2022 had applied unopposed. The 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles will already take place in the western United States.
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