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Barcelona Could Join France And Andorra For Pyrenees 2030 Olympic Winter Games Bid


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Talks were held among Barcelona in Spain, Andorra and the Spanish autonomous community of Aragon with the prospect of launching a 2030 Olympic Winter Games bid centered on the Pyrenees Mountains.  Representatives met in Andorra to discuss possible plans. According to Marca the General Secretary of the Sports Federation Union of Catalonia, Gerard Figueras, made […]

The post Barcelona Could Join France And Andorra For Pyrenees 2030 Olympic Winter Games Bid appeared first on GamesBids.com.

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What would the French component be, though? Pau?  Not exactly the center of French winter sport -- which is more centered in the French alps.  Annecy might want to be the next Winter candidate.  Also, I don't think Andorra really has the infrastructure right now to stage a WOG.  Besides, 2030 will probably favor Salt Lake or Sapporo, especially if Tokyo turns out to be a resounding success, never mind that it's back to East Asia again.  However, continental rotation would favor SLC since 2026 will be in Europe, then North America, and maybe Asia again for 2030?? 

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Well, the other thing with such an Andorra-Barcelona bid -- what if Catalunya separates and becomes an independent state from the time the bid was chosen to execution?  Catalunya would first have to have its own NOC; then they would renegotiate the Cities contract with, instead of Spain, a newly independent Catalonia.  So, all in all, too MANY IMPONDERABLES.  That alone would scuttle the bid, esp. if up against less troubled bids like USOC-Salt Lake, or JOC-Sapporo, or even NOC-Lillehammner if Sweden fails once again to get 2026.   But if 2026 goes to Sweden, that pretty much makes the 2030 race between SLC and Sapporo.  

Edited by baron-pierreIV
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The main problem with a ‘Pyrenees Winter Olympics’, is the amount of infrastructure construction that would have to take place, in particualar for the ice-cluster, & especially the transportation links.

I would also have to agree that SLC would be well-positioned for 2030. Saporro could be better positioned for 2034, but that still would remain to be seen, even if Tokyo 2020 is a great success, especially when a bribery scandal is starting to brew over the election of Tokyo 2020, & maybe Europe could return to the fold by which they would better positioned by then.

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It currently takes about three hours on the road from Barcelona to Andorra, and I doubt they could build a high-speed train link there easily.

However, Andorra just hosted the alpine World Cup finals and easily has the infrastructure for the alpine skiing events, probably also snowboard/freestyle.

Barcelona could also easily host the "ice cluster" events, but they'd obviously have to find space for nordic events and I guess they'd have to borrow La Plagne for sliding track (that would probably the French factor in there?). But indeed, as long as the Catalonia question isn't settled, the IOC won't touch this hot potato. It's not a completely unrealistic concept once the political conflict is solved though, but not in 2030.

Also, you'd wonder: Beijing-Stockholm-Barcelona...if the Winter Olympics don't find hosts anymore, they'll just recycle the summer ones? ;-)

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Yeah, I meant to say “snow”-cluster, which would need a significant amount of work. With as much heat the IOC is getting these days about too much frivolous construction associated with the Olympics, even without the Independence issue, I’d still question how feasible it is, especially when Spain is still recovering from it’s economic issues as well.

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Catalonia and Basque parties could become the King makers in the Spanish Parliament in the election next month it will be the election to watch this year bigger then the EU elections, If Catalonia and Basque is controlling Spain they will want to make the advantage and have massive projects in Catalonia and Basque before they go. Big build up with a snow sports hub leave Spain then when they host the games it will be in the new Catalonia Republic. 

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This is the fallacy of the "hey, look at what Sweden and Italy are doing, let's try one of those ourselves."  We've obviously heard about Barcelona before with regards to a Winter Olympics, so the only new element of this is involving Andorra and France.  But baron made a good point upthread.. will France want to play a part in this or will they start putting their own Winter Olympics in their sights after Paris?  So at that point, can this be made to work knowing how much they have to build.  Wouldn't count on it.

21 hours ago, mountainboarder_530@yahoo. said:

hope they try, its an interesting concept.

It's interesting to us.  Let's see them try to actually make it work.  To say nothing of the competition they might be up against.  Seems like they might be better off not actually trying because I don't know how easily this will gain any traction.

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17 minutes ago, Olympianfan said:

The anti Olympic Games and tourist Mayor of Barcelona is very likely to get the boot out of office the stars could align very well for Barcelona 2026 or 2030 could JAS Jr save the day? 

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Barcelona 2026?  How in thefuck could the stars possibly align where it would even occur to you to believe that's a possibility?

Hosting an Olympics costs billions of dollars.  Takes a little more than favorable political winds and some mystical astrology to make it happen.  JAS Jr. can't snap his fingers and make it happen.  I would like to think on a forum that discusses and analyzes Olympic bidding, we would be smarter than to offer a knee-jerk reaction that someone the son of the former IOC president could pull an Olympics out of his ass.

It will be worth noting if this gains traction for 2030.  I'm betting it won't.

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