A delegation from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday began an inspection visit of sports infrastructure and transport in Sapporo, a city in northern Japan which is currently the only official candidate to host the 2030 Winter Games.
This visit is part of the “ongoing dialogue” between the IOC and Sapporo, which also hopes to receive “technical advice” on this occasion, a municipal official told AFP.
The three-member delegation plans to visit 16 sites on the large island department of Hokkaido, of which Sapporo is the capital.
On the other hand, she should not visit facilities located elsewhere in Japan, such as Nagano (center), which would also host competitions if Sapporo became the host city of the 2030 Olympics, according to local media.
Sapporo had already hosted the Winter Olympics in 1972 and Nagano those of 1998.
The capital of Hokkaido also hosted the marathon and walking events during the Tokyo-2020 Summer Olympics, which had been postponed to 2021 and organized almost behind closed doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
First official candidate (since 2020) to obtain the 2030 Winter Olympics, Sapporo is logically the favorite for the moment.
But other former host cities have also shown interest: Salt Lake City, a city in the southwestern United States which hosted the 2002 edition, and Vancouver (western Canada), organizer of the 2010 Olympics.
A possible candidacy of the Spanish Pyrenees already seems to have lead in the wing: the region of Catalonia has just postponed a local referendum on this project, against a backdrop of disagreements with the neighboring region of Aragon.
The IOC should designate the host city at its next session in a year’s time in Bombay (India).
