9. Once frontrunner to host Winter Games in 2030, Sapporo forced to drop plans and likely miss out on 2034 and 2038 as well
In 2021 Sapporo in Japan looked destined to host the 2030 Olympic Winter Games, even getting a strong endorsement from International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach. But later in the year the Tokyo 2020 bid rigging and corruption scandal hit headlines, tainting local support for the Japanese Winter Games bid. Sapporo hit pause on the project hoping to revive plans in 2023.
Though Sapporo officials released a new governance plan in October aimed to prevent a future scandal and reposition a run at 2030, the bid took a blow only hours later when the IOC announced plans to award the 2030 and 2034 editions at the same time next July and left Sapporo off of the list of named applicants.
The Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) immediately pivoted plans to 2034, and then 2038. But in November when the IOC locked in a potential candidate for 2038, giving them an exclusive four year bidding window, Sapporo accepted that it could be decades before it sees its second Games and immediately suspended its campaign. The IOC agreed that after three consecutive Games in Asia (2014, 2018, 2022), the next opportunity should be years away.
[Top Story #8 on page 4]
