AFor reasons of sustainability, Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has spoken out in favor of “no more new bobsleigh and toboggan runs and no more new ski jumps” being built in the future. But there will always be exceptions, said Bach. In China, the new bobsleigh and toboggan run was supported because there are “more than 300 million Chinese” “who want to turn to winter sports”. That’s what Bach said in Oberhof in Thuringia, which is the venue for two world championships this winter.
The luge world championships ended on Sunday, and the biathlon world championships will begin on February 8th. The state of Thuringia provided more than 55 million euros in funding for the modernization of the two plants. In Cortina d’Ampezzo, co-host of the next Winter Games in 2026, the Italian organizers presented to the city council at the end of January the plans for the new construction of the bobsleigh and toboggan run on the site of the track of the 1956 Games, which has been closed since 2008.
“A certain rotation system”
The IOC had originally recommended that the 2026 bobsleigh and luge competitions take place either in Innsbruck-Igls or in Sankt Moritz, but is now supporting the plans for the new building, for which around 80 million euros are now estimated, which are not part of the official Olympia -Budgets should be.
Bach also said that because of the climate crisis, Winter Olympics could be held more often in the same locations in the future. “One of the considerations is that you are actually thinking about a certain rotation system,” said the IOC President. Snow-reliable winter sports resorts could regularly host Olympic Games or World Championships and thus plan for the long term. Then, according to Bach, it might be possible to ensure “that the systems remain of the necessary high standard”.
Bach predicted that the fact that fewer winter sports resorts remained “especially in Europe” would mean that the existing snow-sure areas would become more popular with tourists. But that could also reduce the willingness in these winter sports resorts to “reserve times for winter sports events or Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games over four or six weeks,” explained the 69-year-old, “because that could mean an impairment of their regular guests”. All of this must be considered when planning the competition calendar and awarding the Olympic Winter Games, especially after 2030.
