Sapporo became the latest city to step back from their Olympic and Paralympic Games bid Tuesday leaving the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with little active interest in hosting the 2030 edition of the Games and making clear their reason for slowing the race.
The news was not unexpected, but surprising amid the growing Tokyo 2020 corruption scandal that is gripping Japan and the IOC’s announcement earlier this month that it would delay the selection of the 2030 host city for at least another year.
Mayor of Sapporo Katsuhiro Akimoto said the Hokkaido capital’s bid would not be immediately canceled but organizers will “discontinue for some time” the “momentum-building activities”, according to broadcaster NHK.
Instead the mayor suggested officials will take time to examine the project and survey the public before moving further forward.
“We recognize we cannot move forward unless we review our operations for the 2030 Games and show that to the world,” Akimoto said.
“To start with, we have to take into consideration the case of the [Tokyo 2020] bid-rigging allegations.
“We will discontinue for some time any aggressive effort on such activities. We will review our bid to gain the true understanding of the people of the city.
“In the future we will conduct a survey of the pros and cons, not only in Hokkaido but also nationwide.
“We will respect the will of the people.”
In March a survey taken across Hokkaido revealed as many as 65.5 precent supported the project, making Japan’s bid the perceived frontrunner and swaying Sapporo city council to dismiss any possible referendum. Weeks later the first of several corruption charges against Tokyo 2020 officials emerged. Last month additional charges were made against executives involving bid-rigging for suppliers of lucrative test events in the lead-up to the Games.
Support across the nation for the bid has since soured, and it’s questionable whether the campaign could survive the referendum proposed by Akimoto. Over the past decade most Olympic bid referendums held across the globe have failed.
IOC executives likely knew this development was coming when they announced a virtual reset to the 2030 Olympic bid process after a board meeting that concluded December 7. It followed an October announcement by Canada’s Province of British Columbia that it would not provide necessary funding to the proposed indigenous-led Vancouver-centered bid. In June Spain’s Pyrenees-Barcelona bid dropped from the race when stakeholders couldn’t agree on the venue allocation.
Now only Salt Lake City is ready to host in 2030, but the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has said it prefers to host in 2034 in order to build a gap following the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Games and maximize revenue opportunities. The IOC has hinted that it might award both 2030 and 2034 editions simultaneously in two-years time suggesting that the Utah capital is still on track for the later Games even as a 2030 host remains elusive.
The IOC also confirmed, when asked by GamesBids.com, that the 2030 race is now reopened to new interested bidders.
The IOC blamed the climate crisis for the delay in the selection process, claiming that the organization needs time to examine the criteria used to site the Games based on new climate data. They also said time was needed to potentially implement a rotation of permanent, climate-capable host venues.
The USOPC has claimed they will remain at the service of the Olympic Movement, even if that means offering Salt Lake City to host in 2030 – but in reality the IOC has found itself without a capable 2030 bid at a time they had scheduled to announce a preferred host for the Games.
What could happen next?
Sapporo and Vancouver remain in continuous dialogue with the IOC. If Japan’s bid weathers the scandal and survives a referendum it could reenter the race. Likewise, Canadian officials will have time to solve the BC bid’s funding issues – or perhaps shift to another province. The IOC claims other nations are interested in the Winter Games and could emerge as new contenders.
As a last resort, Salt Lake City could host in 2030 and 2034 would need to be solved another day.
The 2022 Games were awarded to Beijing over Almaty in Kazakhstan in a two-horse race after five European bids dropped out. Milan-Cortina in Italy won the 2026 Games over Stockholm after four cities withdrew and another was deemed unqualified by the IOC.
This year started with five interested bids – Sapporo, BC, Salt Lake City, Pyrenees-Barcelona and Ukraine before the Russian invasion forced that bid’s suspension. Now, the options for the IOC are slim.
