It could have been left unsaid, but Sapporo Mayor Akimoto Katsuhiro announced Tuesday that his city would abandon all plans to bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in the foreseeable future.
An earthquake, scandal and the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) desire to visit other continents after back-to-back Asian Games stood in the way of Sapporo’s second Winter Games after hosting Asia’s first in 1972. A meeting Tuesday among the Mayor, Hokkaido Governor Suzuki Naomichi, the Japanese Olympic Committee (IOC) and business groups was needed to finally admit defeat.
There’s still a glint of hope that the Games may one day return, Akimoto said explaining “I decided on a ‘halt’ because withdrawing the bid would eliminate Sapporo’s future chances to host the Games.”
Last month the IOC announced that it had committed to awarding the 2030 Winter Games to the French Alps and the 2034 edition to Salt Lake City in the United States pending final negotiations and a member rubberstamping that is scheduled for next July in Paris. Additionally Switzerland was chosen for “privileged dialogue” meaning the national bid has the exclusive opportunity to campaign for the 2038 Games until the end of 2027 – locking all others out of the race.
The next opportunity for Sapporo will likely be in 2042.
IOC Future Host Commission Chair Karl Stoss said last month “We had in the past two Winter Games in Asia – PyeongChang and Beijing. And now the next edition will be in Europe with Milan-Cortina 2026. And maybe the next one also in Europe with 2030 in France, French Alps. Then the next one may be 2034 will be in U.S. with Salt Lake City, Utah.”
“I think it’s brilliant if Japan or another country will come with a proposal to us [for 2042] and to step in with a dialogue for a future host.”
Looking that far forward, Akimoto admitted “we have no choice but to consider starting from a clean slate.”
In October Akimoto admitted that the Tokyo 2020 bid rigging and bribery scandal hit hard, eroding public trust in Sapporo’s bid. At that time he took his city out of the running for the 2030 Games.
Then an IOC decision to award both the 2030 and 2034 Games jointly next year took the city again took the city out of the running.
A further stunning announcement that the IOC had decided to focus on Switzerland for 2038 left Sapporo’s bid without a viable future.
Sapporo began planning its bid as early as 2014 hoping to host in 2026. In September 2018 officials were forced to delay the project after the region was hit by the 6.6 magnitude Hokkaido Earthquake that caused death and destruction.
Focusing on 2030, Sapporo had been considered the frontrunner out of the gate in 2020 when IOC President Thomas Bach played up the “excellent” project.
But then the Tokyo bribery scandal hit, prompting Sapporo to pause its bid, then later drop out of the 2030 race altogether. The new target was 2034.
The project could never fully recover before the IOC decided that it was time to map the Games as far forward as 2038 in order to get ahead of climate change. Sapporo is one of the regions the IOC claims will be climate capable at least until 2050.
