Sawt Falasteen - Sweden mulling bid for 2030 Winter Olympics

Alternative host candidates for the 2030 Games have been dropping out, with Salt Lake City, the only contender still in the race, now expressing a preference for the 2034 Olympics instead.

Sweden will conduct a "preliminary study" in the next few months to determine whether there is potential to move ahead with a bid, SOC head Anders Larsson told reporters.

"Let's hope it will lead to a bid, and let's hope that will in turn lead to the Olympics and Paralympics in Sweden", he said.

The International Olympic Committee had initially been due to announce the host city this year but has postponed its decision until 2024, citing challenges presented by climate change.

But the reality is that there are few candidates: the Japanese city of Sapporo, once seen as a favourite, has put its bid on hold following a corruption scandal surrounding the summer 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Other bids have been withdrawn, including those from Vancouver and Barcelona-Zaragoza.

Only Salt Lake City in the United States, which hosted the Games in 2002, remains as a possibility.

But given that the Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles in 2028, Salt Lake City has said it would prefer to organise the Winter 2034 edition.

Sweden's 2026 bid included events in Stockholm and the Are ski resort in the northwest. The Swedish cities that could be involved in a potential 2030 bid have not been confirmed yet, the SOC said.

While the Swedish government ultimately threw its weight behind the 2026 bid in the final stages, it enjoyed only lukewarm support among the general public.

Stockholm hosted the Summer Games in 1912, but has never hosted a Winter Olympics despite numerous attempts over the years.

A lack of candidates to host the Winter Games has become a recurring problem. Beijing, which hosted in 2022, had only the Kazakh city of Almaty as a rival.

Given the lack of potential hosts, the IOC has hinted at the possibility of giving the 2030 and 2034 Games to the same host in order to provide a "climate of stability".

J.AbuHassan--SF-PST