Industry News
Japanese Olympic Committee officials and representatives from Sapporo, Japan, announced on Wednesday, October 11, 2023, that the city of Sapporo will withdraw its bid to host the 2030 Winter Olympics. The decision to withdraw the bid came due to a lack of public support amidst the scandals following the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games.
Sapporo Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto and Japanese Olympic Committee President Yasuhiro Yamashita announced the decision at a joint press conference in Tokyo. “We could not gain understanding from the citizens,” the mayor of Sapporo, Akimoto, told reporters. “There has been a widespread sense of uneasiness among the citizens about the criminal cases related to the 2020 Tokyo Games, and they are also worried about their financial burden for hosting the games.”
Last year, Japanese authorities launched an investigation into the alleged taking of bribes in the selection of Tokyo Games sponsors and the rigging of the bidding process for test events. Prosecutors raided Japanese advertising firms Dentsu, Hakuhodo, and ADK Holdings and arrested former Tokyo Games organizing committee, ‘Tocog,’ executive Haruyuki Takahashi, and other Tocog executives. Yesterday, Toshiyuki Yoshihara was found guilty of bribing Takahashi and given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for four years, while Takahashi’s trial is yet to commence.
Sapporo is located on the north island of Hokkaido in Japan. The region experiences an average snowfall of 175 inches (445cm). The location close to the sea, coupled with freezing Siberian winds from the north, makes the area snowproof. Scientists from the University of Waterloo in Canada estimate that it will be the only Olympic City to still be able to host future games into the end of the 21st century.
The bidding for the 2030 Winter Olympics has been up and down since the process was opened. Salt Lake City, Sapporo, and Barcelona initially expressed interest in hosting the Winter Olympics. However, Barcelona withdrew its bid as it could not agree on hosting the Games in the Pyrenees region, where most snow events would be held. In 2021, Vancouver submitted a preliminary bid, but the BC government announced in October 2022 that they were not supporting the bid financially, and the bid had to be withdrawn.
This year, Stockholm-Åre in Sweden and the French Alpine regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur emerged as last-minute bidders for the 2030 Winter Games. France has hosted three Winter Olympics in the past — 1924 in Chamonix, 1968 in Grenoble, and 1992 in Albertville — and is thus very experienced, while Sweden has never hosted Winter Games but is very keen after losing out to Milan-Cortina, Italy, for the 2026 Winter Games. The IOC will not announce the successful host for the 2030 Games until 2024.
