International Olympic Committee Postpones Decision on 2030 Winter Olympics Host City

The International Olympic Committee has announced that its decision on a host city for the 2030 Winter Olympics and Paralympics will be delayed until at least September 2023. Candidate cities: Salt Lake City; Sapporo, Japan; and Vancouver, Canada, all of which have previously hosted a Winter Games, will have to wait until next fall for a final decision.

The postponement of the decision comes after the IOC Executive Board elected to delay the organization’s annual meeting in Mumbai, India, next year, as it was shelved and could be potentially canceled. This is a result of the “uncertain situation” of India’s national Olympic committee, which faces suspension over ongoing internal disputes, governance flaws, and court cases, including a failure by India’s Olympic body to hold scheduled elections last December.

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Potential Winter Olympic cities now sit in flux, as confirming the host for the 2023 Games is one of the critical decisions intended to be made at the Mumbai Meetings. The session, which was due to be held in May, is an annual meeting of about 100 individual members including Indian billionaire Nita Ambani. The IOC declared the meeting is now postponed until autumn of next year.  

IOC President Thomas Bach spoke after the executive board’s meeting at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, regarding the heightened level of interest in hosting the Olympics and how the committee has revolutionized its procedure to select hosts for the Olympic Games. Gone are the days of expensive bid campaigns as the committee is now encouraging social, economic, and environmental sustainability to control the costs associated with constructing venues and other preparations.

Bach also has ruled out the possibility that the IOC could award both the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games at the same time, and a decision for 2034 will have to wait. During a press conference, Bach informed reporters that the new selection schedule will be up to the subcommittee, chaired by Romanian IOC member and European rugby executive Octavian Morariu. Whether the committee will stick to a schedule that called for closed-door talks to begin in December with bidders, Bach stated: 

“We have taken this decision just yesterday, and have informed the chair of the commission only, I think, yesterday evening or today in the course of the day…So they will have to take these into consideration and then come up with a schedule. This is in their hands.”