The Olympic Trivia of the month: "How many times has Oslo submitted their candidacy for the WOG?"

---

Email us your answer using the web form, and you are entered into the drawing of an bag of Olympic collectors lapel pins from ten Olympic Committees.

The Olympic Memory of the Month: The torch is being lit at the Torino opening Ceremonies. Not all went according to plan in Torino, but the Opening Ceremonies were fine. In fact they were so ok that one would have to say they were the highlight of the 2006 Games.

Photo credit: Christopher Healey

January 2010 correct answer: Speed Skating and Biathlon.

October/December 2009 correct answer: Fiji, Brazil and American Samoa.

August/September 2009 correct answer: None!

Summer 2009 correct answer: 984 medals.

April/May 2009 correct answer: Ice hockey was once a Summer Games event.

February/March 2009 corrrect answer: London has been awarded the games more times than any other, four times, one of which was cancelled due to WWII.

January 2009 correct answer: Chicago 1904 and Denver 1976 have been awarded the Games but never actually hosted.

December 2008 correct answer: More athletes than spectators attended the 1900 Paris SOG.

Meet the candidates.... and vote!

Bid City - Undecided/Potential Bid City - Withdrawn

Sochi is hosting the 2014 Winter Games!

Being awarded the 2014 Winter Games, Sochi sets a strong precedence towards the 2011 IOC vote. It is commonly believed that even though no such rule exists, the IOC always chooses a host city from a different continent than the previous host. Should this still be the case, and we have no reason to believe otherwise, the election of Sochi more or less killed the candidacies of such cities as Boromji, Almaty, Sofia, Bursa and Bukovel.

Since Paris was overlooked in the 2012 bid, and the 2016 went to South America, there may be a chance for France, and if Europe is considered over Asia/South Korea for 2018, it is certain that Annecy will get the games. However, we strongly believe that Korea is up one on the French. It is our guess that Paris bids for 2020 and gets the Games, upon which the Summer Games once more looks towards to North America. It is virtually impossible for IOC to overlook Europe with no games between 2012 and 2020, which poses the interesting question; What do the French want the most? Annecy or Paris? They could probably win either, but not both, and it is out guess that France prefers Paris 2020 over Annecy 2018.

For the record, we at Olympics2018.org have absolutely no faith in Munchen 2018. Seeing as Germany has Berlin/Hamburg up its sleeve for 2024, and that they probably think exactly the same as the French, they prefer Berlin 2024 over Munich 2018.

We will follow the bids closely!

The staff

---

IOC SHORTLIST

 

Pyeong Chang, South Korea

This Korean winter sports city was in the running for 2014 host city and has bid again. Pyeong Chang (PC) has recently been awarded three World Championships and Korea would become only the second country outside of Europe and North America to host the Winter Games. They were on the 2014 Hot List, and there is a general concensus that PC is a major favorite for 2018 since it did not win 2014. Considering Asias pause from the Winter Games since 1998 and South Korea's emergence as one of the greater winter sports nations in the East, it is our current belief that they will be awarded the Games for 2018.

---

 

Munich, Germany

Munich, Germany, has declared that they will enter a 2018 Winter Olympic Bid, should Salzburg be unsucessfull in its 2014 WOG bid. Salzburg has already announced that they will not enter a 2018 bid, and we therefore place Munchen on the green-list.

---

 

Annecy, France  

The French Olympic committee will need to choose between three potential candidate cities. Annecy, which had originally intended to bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics, has been joined in the running by Grenoble and Gap. However, the French committee is quite reluctant, preferring to focus on the 2024 Summer Olympics, which makes a French WOG bid dubious at best. Annecy does have the advantage of having been through the bid process for 2014, in which it is no longer running. If it turns out that it had some support, it may very well be a strong candidate for 2018, provided France decides to bid, and if Annecy wins the French contest first... As of today, Annecy is certainly the French favourite. See their website here.

---

 

 

 

Failed or withdrawn bids

 

 

Salzburg, Austria

According to sources, the Austrian Olympic Committee has announced that Salzburg will not get a second chance since it was not succsessful in the 2014 bid. The Austrians are not ruling out a 2018 WOG bid, but Salzburg is said to have had its chances. We are therefore not considering Salzburg a potential candidate at this time.

 

 

Santiago, Chile

Santiago would have become the first city on the southern hemisphere to host the Winter Games. Chile has World class alpine skiing and is a commonly used training camp for winter sports athletes during the European and North American summer. The Chilean Olympic Committee put forth the idea of hosting to the country's government, but the deciscion has not officially been made whether actually to bid or not. (DECEMBER UPDATE:) However, their website's last post is two years old: January 27th 2005. The site webmaster has told us that the organizing committee only seeks publicity through a dud candidacy and will never in fact submit a bid to the IOC. We are therefore demoting Santago to the withdrawn category. See their current bid pages here.

---

 

 

Jaca, Spain

The mountain town of Jaca (Chaca) on the Spanish-French border in the Pyrenees has been Spain's winter olympic candidate over the course of three bids; 1998, 2002 and 2014, but has as of yet not come close. Spain has not yet decided whether to focus on a Madrid SOG or a 2018 WOG, but it has come to our attention, off the record, thru Spanish officials, that Jaca's bids are merely publicity stunts and not real attempts to bring the Wintergames to Spain. Information from Mr.P within the Jaca bid committee also indicates that Jaca is no longer a candidate.

 

---

Oslo/Lillehammer, Norway 

Oslo lost the Norwegian bid for the 2018 Winter Games to the city of Tromso in March 2007. There are currently no plans to reenter a bid for 2022 in spite of Tromso's fail to bid.

---

 

 

Trondheim, Norway 

Trondheim lost the Norwegian bid for the 2018 Winter Games to the city of Tromso in March 2007. There are currently no plans to reenter a bid for 2022 in spite of Tromso's fail to bid.

---

 

 

Tromso, Norway

Tromso was elected Norway's candidate. A 6-6 tied vote in the Sports Council was broken by the double vote of the assistant Chairman voting in place of the Chairman who had been excused due to illness. It later tuned out that the Chairman had not in fact been ill, instead he was asked to withdraw silently after having been caught forging a document in order to try and avoid paying out USD150K he had promised to a Norwegian youth sports organization. The question then became whether Tromso would get the support of its government after having been elected in such a disorderly fashion and with massive opposition in the Parliament. They did not, and Norway withdrew all its potential bids; Oslo/Lillehammer, Trondheim and Tromsø.   Located in the northernmost Norway, in the 'Paris of the North' and city of contrasts between light and darkness, Tromso was a Candidate to host the 2018 Winter Games. Tromso claimed it would bring the intimacy and pure joy of winter sports back to the Olympic Movement, as it once took place in Lillehammer 1994. Romsa is Sami for Tromso, and their logo was based on the stone age rock carvings found in the area. Several former Olympians, such as Gold medal winner Vegard Ulvang (X-country) and former Norwegian Olympic Team Chef de Mission Borge Stensbol had joined Team Tromso. During January and February 2007, the Norwegian bid process was in focus due to some politicians publicly supporting one bid city over another, even though all the bids were not yet submitted. This enraged many sports fans, since they see this as a Sports Federation and Olympic Committe task, and not a governmental task. See their website here.

Oestersund/Aare, Sweden  Sweden has sought both the Wintergames and Summergames many times over the last 30 years and one might wonder why the IOC still hasn't awarded them for their effort. One of the major drawbacks, as it was with many smaller candidate cities is the infrastructure and transportation. The Oestersund area is quaint and similar to Lillehammer and could potentially be a good host, but the Swedish economy is, for the time being, on its knees. One question was whether the city would recieve funding grants from the government to ensure a bid, one more time, which they didn't. However, fuled by massive publicity around the Alpine Ski World Championships in February 2007, a planning committee was established in Aare. The committee started working on presenting a bid to the Swedish Olympic Committee in 2007 but stranded when the newly elected government did not show an equal enthusiasm as the previous one.        Gap, France Gap, located in the Hautes-Alpes, is not only the highest prefecture in France, but also the largest city in the Southern Alps. Its strategic geographical location gives it the advantage of being at the heart of three great European regions: Rhone-Alps, Northern Italy and the mediterranean coast. Gap had only a basic initial website up, however only in French. Their main e-mail address was ojo2018@yahoo.fr and one might ask oneself whether that sends a message of professionalism or if this was just another ho-bo Jaca-style PR-stunt... Souvernirs and memorabilia were available for purchase on the website.   Grenoble, France Grenoble came back out of the woodwork and were considering a bid for the Games once more. There has been no speak of Grenoble since they beat Calgary for the 1968 Games, but the little French village has stayed among the top resorts of the Alps for decades and would probably do great once again. One drawback wass the 2016 Summer Games bids by Paris; France wouldn't get two games in a two year period, so one would most likely ruin the other's chances. Also, it would have had to go two rounds first with its French competitors. Hence it was no surprise that Grenoble withdrew at an early stage.     Almaty, Kazakhstan Almaty, or Alma Ata, is the Winter Sports capital of the Central Asia region. A part of the World Cup circuit in both speed skating and skiing diciplines it has a long tradition of hosting major winter sport events. A former Soviet republic, Kazakhstan is rebuilding its former glory, and is excelling in culture, tourism and sports. The nation has a large contingent to the Olympic Games, primarily in sports such as ice hockey, skiing and speed skating. Human rights may have been an issue before, but since Bejing and Rio got the goods, nobody takes the IOC seriously anymore when they claim that a country must have a stable political situation to be awarded the Games. The only way to get to Almaty is to fly in, so as long as their local infrastructure is rebuilt along with stadiums and rinks, they could have been able to pull it off. That is, if they in fact had decided to run for 2018. The URL almaty2018.com was reserved, but once Sochi got 2014, all hopes in the region disappeared.       Borjomi, Georgia Boromji launched an unsuccessful bid for the 2014 games and finally decided against going another round. Their 2014 website is still up and presumably a new bid would have resembled the previous. The bid had a strong backing from the Georgian Olympic Committee and the Georgians. A poll shows nearly 90% public backing of a bid. The Caucasus mountains has great skiing, but the question, as it is for many hosts; Do they have the infrastructure, economy and security measures in place to host tens of thousands spectators? See their 2014 pages here.     Sofia, Bulgaria Sofia has applied many times, but the Olympic Committee has never found room for the Bulgarian capital among the top seed. Sofia suffered from the Eastern European lack of social structure and economy, but then again, 1984 saw Sarajevo, so why not? This time Sofia would have show off the new East Europe, rid of its old political mayhem and rising like a bird Phoenix, sparkling in the geographical center of Eurasia, bringing together East and West in a brand new way. The Bulgarian Olympic Commitee was going to decide whether to bid in December 2006, postponed its decicion till the end of 2007 and then chose to bid for the 2016 Winter Youth Olympcs instead, bidding against Jaca of Spain, a long time runner, Swiss newcomer Lucerne and Lake Placid, NY. See their 2014 website here.          Potential future US Candidates   Denver, Colorado

A member of the rare "Won the bid but didn't host the Games club", Denver has never gotten to show the world what it can serve. Since 1976 when first awarded the games, Denver has lived under the eternal shadow of great host cities that actually came through. This time around however, they are out to show the world they are a "Can Do" host, and the magnificent Rockies are ready to bombard you with world class snow, beer, food and a scenery that will take your breath away. As with the other US cadidates, much will be decided by USOC in chosing its national 2020 SOG candidate. There is a general consensus that USOC as of today would prefer the Summer Games. Contacts within the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) informed us that USOC would not decide on a potential 2018 WOG bid until 2010. It is likely however, that the USOC decided against any US 2018WOG bid immediately after it became clear that Chicago did not get 2016. The next likely US WOG is far in the future. USOC clearly prefers SOG and in 2020 the Games are going back to North America, in the writer's humble opinion.