StefanMUC

Well, it‘s insane and I guess the US delegation will get to experience what the rest of the world thinks of that (a pity for those athletes who do not side with the fascist regime though).

Don‘t underestimate the corruption in the Swiss justice system when it comes to rich and powerful people or organisations.

Well, tarriffs seem to be off now after he met with Rutte and claims there‘s agreement over Greenland. This incredible sh*t show must end, if need be through a double cheeseburger instead of impeachment or the 25th. The world has had enough of this horrible man, his corrupt gang and family and that braindead MAGA crowd.

LOL no way Unless we‘re getting into real occupation by May, there will be no boycott from anyone happening, the least from the politically totally incompetent DFB.

From Eddie the Eagle to Dick the Duck, some avians go extra lenghts to be ahead of their rivals.

Geneva has Curling. And any people from Geneva can hop on a train to Lausanne and be there in less than an hour. The whole area from Geneva to Vevey along the lake is like one big agglomeration with more than 1.3 million people, i.e. identical to SLC.

I loved how everything was so compact in Paris (for most sports), but this concept is indeed pretty unrealistic for winter hosts these days. And actually already for a few decades with some exceptions.

Infantino does. At least he would never admit he doesn‘t. And Coventry is probably having nightmares and keeps every finger and toe crossed that in two years that horror show will somehow be over.

That same Hamburg electorate voted in favour of stricter climate protection in a referendum in autumn - against the will of basically that same broad political support. So it‘s really difficult to tell.

We‘ll see about HSV in the long run, but the club always has higher ambitions that don‘t match reality. I‘m sure club and fans will embrace a new stadium with open hearts. It would however still be dishonest to pretend this would be unrelated to the bid (i.e. not include the costs for the stadium construction in the bid/hosting costs).

Well yes to both parapgraphs, sadly. Greenland will be a breaking point at least for some parts of Europe though. The Nordic countries at least will not just shrug and move on from it.

St Moritz wouldn‘t just be there for the Olympic history though. It‘s the logical/ default choice for sliding sports in Switzerland, and I guess if it hadn‘t required more funding and thus a referendum in Grisons, they could have put the alpine events there as well instead of Crans Montana - which in the abundance of Swiss alpine resorts still also makes sense as a venue given that it will host the next alpine World Champs 2027. Likewise, Lenzerheide and Engelberg are well established sites for their sports and if it‘s all about sustainability and avoiding funding referendums, they had to be on the list too. Which leaves the ice sports for which none of those resort towns have appropriate venues anyway. I‘m a bit surprised they use Zug instead of Bern for ice hockey and leave the capital just with the CC. Lugano is obviously there to cover Italian-speaking Svizzera, and Geneva had to get the breadcrumbs for lack of proper arena (same happened with their bid for Eurovision 2025). Lausanne over Zürich for the OC and the figure skating/short track also makes sense indeed given that it is the IOC‘s location and it can make for some nice symbolism. Yes, it‘s all very spread out, and especially for the athletes it will be a pity that there will not be one or two main villages only, but in terms of travel time between the two most distant locations (Geneva/St Moritz), it‘s only one hour more than Milan-Cortina by train.

Quick Hamburg update: The city (state) parliament unanimously approved the proposal to hold the referendum on 31 May. Of course that doesn‘t mean unanimous support - AFAIK the coalition (Social democrats/Greens) and the conservatives are in favour, the Linke (left) and the fascists are against but want to have the vote as well. Referendum will cost more than 7 million EUR (I think something similar to the one here), and the NOlympia group is already starting a campaign to make sure that their arguments are included in the official documents with the voting notification (unlike here, where only the - positive - view of the city council was included, which caused some legal debates that were however dismissed in court). The question will be a yes/no one identical to the Munich one: Should Hamburg bid for the Olympics in 2036/40/44? (Still the three-cycles package as DOSB wants to keep its options open) No idea how this will turn out eventually.

I made it there actually in autumn 2024, and the lakefront stretching from the museum to the IOC HQ would probably good (there‘s a stadium there on the way too). Just that a „city ceremony“ like in Paris may be a bit more chilly in Swiss February, especially at the lake with wind coming over from the mountains - or maybe worse fog (in 3 days at the lake, we never could see fully across it to the French side). You also want snow on the slopes, but not on the streets if you do that kind of ceremony. That said, I can already see the torch bearer running up the stairs to the museum and lighting the fire there.

I fear you might be right about DOSB. Then again, if there‘s plenty of time (which we don‘t really know since the IOC is keeping it very quiet right now about the 2036 and beyond deadlines), they could have just set their decision date for a weeks after the Berlin election (the date of which already known for some time) to see the outcome… Also, why should Munich or any of the others feel thrilled about getting the cold shoulder first and then come to the rescue? I know that‘s basically what happened with Boston/LA, and I‘m pretty sure they would step in, but it‘s also a bad look internationally if your rejected choice then gets presented to the IOC. As for Hamburg and the freshly relabelled Cologne et al bid, I haven‘t heard much about how their campaigns are going. Maybe the promise of the new HSV stadium will swing it in Hamburg, but if course then the whole cost debate becomes disingenious there if they really pretend it‘s not an Olympics-related project.

IIRC the decision will be before the election with the current schedule though, I think just a few days before, but still… At this rate, the left (leaning) parties will get a majority, with Die Linke getting most seats, but if they will be able to form a coalition with Greens and a very centrist SPD remains to be seen. If they can, the bid will most likely be cancelled (if DOSB has either not decided by then ir foolishly gone for Berlin anyway). Yes, the outage area is conservative/wealthy (not far right though), other suburbs especially in the east are clearly either far-right or far-left these days (more the former).

A little story about the state of things in Berlin: On Saturday, a huge power outage in a part of the city left thousands literally in the cold until the repair work was finally done yesterday (that it took so long in itself is already worrying). The outage was caused by sabotage, either by some weird left extremist group that claimed it or possibly that was a false flag instigated by Russia. Conservative politicians immediately jumped on the left extremism theory because it is convenient, while more and more details seem to point towards Moscow. Anyway, all of this is clearly a big mess and you‘d think the (conservative) mayor would work 24/7 to get this sorted out. That‘s what he more or less told the press and public. Until it emerged yesterday that on Saturday, just a few hours after the crisis began, he went to play tennis with his partner (she is also a member of his government…), to, as he said when it was revealed, „clear my head“. You‘d think a resignation would be due for such an obvious lie in a crisis situation, but nope: he‘s staying in power for now after securing his party‘s backing today. The autumn election will however now for sure be the end of his career - the outage happened in what would usually be a conservative area of the city. And if DOSB really still considers Berlin an option, this will be even more embarrassing than all failed German bids of the last four decades combined. There‘s also a little local story about Munich involving sports and the city administration, but more about that another time.

I wonder if the aftermath of the terrible disaster in Crans Montana (surely one of the potential venues?) will have any influence. While it was obviously not related to sports, there may be questions raised about general political accountability and governance at least in the canton of Valais.

The downward spiral is getting completely out of control. People shrug and say „yeah but what can FIFA/IOC do at this point in time, it‘s too late for a plan B…“. Well yes, they can‘t (and in the case of FIFA at least certainly don‘t want to) do anything about anymore, but noone can really believe that everything goes „normal“ this summer (I mean, if he really invades Greenland, Denmark for sure and likely a few others will not be at the WC - and that‘ll be one of the least concerns of such an outrageous action), let alone what nightmares nationally and abroad that regime will still initiate before 2028. It is absolutely infuriating to watch from here, knowing that we also will feel the dark consequences of that madness. And I can‘t even bear to think what it must be like for the many millions non-MAGA in the US who have to live through this horror every day now.

As someone on German Bluesky wrote: „Now he‘s got the chance to end yet another war.“

Quite obviously not. Happy New Year!

Dardust is great! Hope that means some if the artists he’s worked with will also be at the ceremonies (Mahmood!!).

I never mentioned “Europe” in my previous post. As a matter of fact, 2028 will not be the first earthquake prone location and also for such purposes I’m sure previous hosts made tests, without needing to sell tickets for them.

“Test events” have been organised the way @cfm Jeremie described for decades, mostly without being called “test events” officially. The concept has worked more or less well, just like the Olympics that would follow, and there is no reason to believe 2028 will be different.

If any Dem nominee talks of “healing” instead of promising to prosecute the whole gang to put them in prison, they can STFU.