2026 Winter Olympics: Almaty “ace in the hole”

“I am sure that there have been discussions going on in the background for a long time,” the sports economist and 1988 Olympic rowing champion told the Sport Information Service: “I ask myself, for example: Where is Almaty? Maybe that’s the ace up the hole”? The Kazakh city narrowly lost out to Beijing, which will host the 2022 Games, three years ago.

Calgary/Canada's bid for the Winter Games in eight years is on the verge of being abandoned after no agreement could be reached on financial guarantees. The city council, which meets on Wednesday, has the final say.

The new Stockholm city council rejected the Swedish application at the beginning of October. The Italian campaign with Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo still lacks state financial guarantees. The IOC has not approved the Turkish city of Erzurum as an official candidate.

Regardless of the question of a host for 2026, Maennig sees the International Olympic Committee as having a duty to initiate further reforms in order to secure the Winter Games in the long term. “The IOC has understood the problem and is increasingly becoming an advisor itself; it will increasingly approach applicants on its own initiative,” said Maennig. Next steps would follow “and, given the situation, must follow,” said Maennig, who sees the often escalating costs for Olympic infrastructure projects as the main problem. “The IOC is starting to think about whether they should break the taboo and also contribute to infrastructure costs,” said Maennig: “That will happen.” The operational budget for 2026 will support the IOC with $925 million.

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2026 Winter Olympics: Almaty “ace in the hole”

In view of growing problems with the candidate cities for the 2026 Winter Olympics, Olympic expert Wolfgang Maennig believes that the IOC is working on an emergency solution.

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