The IOC claims climate change is hampering its efforts to find Winter Olympics hosts.

The International Olympic Committee is in a dither. The Swiss-based sports organization is having problems getting Switzerland interested in hosting a Winter Olympics. The IOC does have one area, Salt Lake City, Utah, that has backers wanting the very expensive two-week sports event but not in 2030. Sapporo, Japan political and business leaders planned on pursuing a bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics but dropped the plan because local residents refused to support the bid because of the bribery scandals related to the winning bidding by the Tokyo committee for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Sapporo residents also cited cost concerns as they did not want to pick up the tab for an event that always loses a huge amount of money. The IOC always requires local committees to get a commitment from the various levels of government to underwrite the costs of the event.

Sweden, Switzerland and France political leaders and business leaders are thinking about bidding for the 2030 event.  Salt Lake City officials have indicated that Utah could host the 2030 games but the local committee would prefer to land the 2034 event. The reason? Money. The United States Olympic Committee might not be able to go to the well twice within 18 months for corporate and marketing money as Los Angeles is hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics. The IOC is planning to award the 2030 and 2034 events sometime in 2024. There is a rather strange explanation as to why the group wants to do this. The real reason is the IOC wants to get two groups locked in before support melts away in the United States, France, Sweden and Switzerland. The IOC though claims climate change is the culprit. Only 15 countries are able to hold a Winter Olympics and with climate change, the IOC could eventually say goodbye to the winter games.

Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191

Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com