2026 Winter Olympics: Italy optimistic about Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo after Calgary's withdrawal

The city of Calgary (Alberta, Canada), where the 1988 Olympic Winter Games were held, will not host the 2026 Winter Olympics: 56.4% of the inhabitants said no in a consultative referendum in which 304,774 people out of 767,000 registered voters participated electronically, representing a 39.7% participation rate, on Tuesday 13/11/2018.

After the withdrawals of Sion (Valais, Switzerland) and Graz-Schladming (Styria, Austria) and the IOC's exclusion of Erzurum (Eastern Anatolia, Turkey), Calgary's withdrawal leaves only two cases to be considered for the 2026 Games: Stockholm (Sweden) and Milan - Cortina d'Ampezzo (Lombardy/Veneto, Italy). But the Swedish capital could also withdraw, for lack of local and especially national political support, since Sweden has been without a government since the elections of 09/09/2018, which did not achieve any majority, while all financial guarantees must be provided to the International Olympic Committee by the deadline of 11/01/2019.

The Italian application, which may soon be the sole bid, is to be presented to the IOC by the CONI President…