AustralianFan Posted March 12 Report Share Posted March 12 Just in ….. >>>> Gunilla Linberg, Sweden’s IOC Member in the Future Host Commission, has just suspended her role in that same Commission. This is the right thing to do so that there is not a conflict of interest as Sweden and Latvia explore a possible tilt at the 2030 Games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustralianFan Posted March 12 Report Share Posted March 12 continued ………….. Extract from the ITG report released a short time ago: “The IOC still lists Lindberg as a member of the Future Host Commission, headed by Romanian IOC member Octavian Morariu, on its website.” “They contacted insidethegames to announce she that she had temporarily stood down due to her participation in the Future Host Commission to avoid a potential conflict of interest.” “Should the SOK proceed to "continuous dialogue" with the IOC - which is described as exploratory, non-committal and non-edition specific - Lindberg would cease to become a member of the Future Host Commission.” “The 2030 Games is set to mark the first Winter edition awarded under the IOC's new bidding process in which its Future Host Commission is responsible for identifying and proposing a preferred candidate from interested parties to the Executive Board, instead of a traditional bidding race such as that which Stockholm-Åre lost by 47 votes to 34 to Milan-Cortina for 2026 at the IOC Session in 2019.” “The IOC Executive Board can then enter targeted dialogue with one or more preferred hosts for the Olympic Games, which was successful for Brisbane for the 2032 Summer edition, making approval at the Session in Tokyo in 2021 a formality.” Lindberg suspends IOC Future Host Commission membership due to Sweden's 2030 Winter Olympics interest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustralianFan Posted March 12 Report Share Posted March 12 Another photo from the exploratory meeting on Friday 10 March between Swedish and Latvian officials about moving forward, given a Feasibility Study is due to be presented in February. In news which broke last night, Gunilla Linberg (centre, grey jacket) , Sweden’s IOC Member in the Future Host Commission, has just suspended her role in the Commission to avoid potential conflict of interest with a possible Sweden-Latvia 2030 bid for the 2030 Olympic Winter Games. Credit: Latvia is forming a working group to consider joining Sweden in its 2030 Winter Olympics bid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted March 12 Report Share Posted March 12 (edited) Spoke (or rather, corresponded) with my various relatives across Sweden the past week or so, and naturally the Olympics came up. My Stockholm cousin says it would be a “miracle” if the Green Stockholm city council supported it. My cousins/aunts etc further north were more equivocal, but not expecting much to come of it. That said, they did reassure me that in the unlikely chance it comes off, that javisst I’d naturally have free beds across the country, from Stockholm to Falun to points close to Åre come 2030. Apparently I’ve even got distant rels I didn’t know know about in Riga. But not to make my next visit conditional on the games - they wanna see me anyway come what may. Edited March 12 by Sir Rols 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baron-pierreIV Posted March 12 Report Share Posted March 12 /\/\ Awwwwwwww. Must feel good to know you're awaited halfway around the world!! Congrats!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustralianFan Posted March 13 Report Share Posted March 13 2 hours ago, AustralianFan said: Another photo from the exploratory meeting on Friday 10 March between Swedish and Latvian officials about moving forward, given a Feasibility Study is due to be presented in February. In news which broke last night, Gunilla Linberg (centre, grey jacket) , Sweden’s IOC Member in the Future Host Commission, has just suspended her role in the Commission to avoid potential conflict of interest with a possible Sweden-Latvia 2030 bid for the 2030 Olympic Winter Games. Credit: Latvia is forming a working group to consider joining Sweden in its 2030 Winter Olympics bid Correction: Feasibility Study to be presented 20 April 2023 (next month). (NBC Sports) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted March 13 Report Share Posted March 13 1 hour ago, baron-pierreIV said: /\/\ Awwwwwwww. Must feel good to know you're awaited halfway around the world!! Congrats!! I was shocked to realise it’s been almost 15 years since I’ve last been back there. I really must return - it’s such a magical country. I prefer it in Midsommar to winter, though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustralianFan Posted March 13 Report Share Posted March 13 2 hours ago, Sir Rols said: Spoke (or rather, corresponded) with my various relatives across Sweden the past week or so, and naturally the Olympics came up. My Stockholm cousin says it would be a “miracle” if the Green Stockholm city council supported it. My cousins/aunts etc further north were more equivocal, but not expecting much to come of it. That said, they did reassure me that in the unlikely chance it comes off, that javisst I’d naturally have free beds across the country, from Stockholm to Falun to points close to Åre come 2030. Apparently I’ve even got distant rels I didn’t know know about in Riga. But not to make my next visit conditional on the games - they wanna see me anyway come what may. That’s sweet. Yes you should go visit them anyway, sounds like it would be nice to catch up with them, and with summer approaching too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustralianFan Posted March 13 Report Share Posted March 13 On 3/12/2023 at 9:16 AM, baron-pierreIV said: WHOA!! JUst looked at Latvia's population. DIdn't realize that they are under TWO million, more like 1.88 million citizens. Hmmm, Even with an abundance of indoor stadia -- which Stockholm also has, I wonder if they can sell enough tickets to fill whatever indoors events are alloted to them? Whereas Sweden has 10.6 million alone. (And even if you add the pops of the neighbors, just NOR-SWE-DEN alone would vastly outnumber EST-LAT-LITH.) So I think Riga could realistically only get Women's Ice Hockey and probably Short or Long-Track speed skating. Stockholm would want to hold on to all the other Indoor events where they will have stronger teams to field; and Stockholm would be better equipped to handle larger international crowds. Should a Stockholm-Sigulda (they have to go by the city names) Games bear fruit, wouldn't it be the supreme irony/parallel that in 1956, Stockholm played an outlier/add-on host for Equestrian to Melbourne's main set of sports; while come 2030, Sweden hosts the main body of sports but hands off one segment of sports to another country which has the equipment to stage them? I'd say funny-strange how history could repeat itself in a different configuration. And while Melbourne 1956 happened while the USSR had already invaded Hungary, let's hope that the Ukraine-Russia stand-off will still not be happening even by 2026. (Note, Mexico 1968 happened when friggin' USSR invaded Czechoslovakia. What is it with these Stalinists? I think buyers from all around Europe, but northern European countries in particular, would play a major role in ticket sales should there be second successive Winter Games held following Milano Cortina in 2026. Sweden and Latvia are literally surrounded by blue ribbon winter sports countries and a couple of them have hosted the Olympics in the past. I agree also with your suggestions of other sports being held in Latvia. Its not like Sweden can ignore this request from Latvia now that it has been made so public. So yes, Sweden have most likely have turned their attention already to what can be shared with Latvia outside of sliding events Yes, it is kinda weird the historical twist to what happened with Sweden playing the backup distnt role as equestrian for the 1956 Melbourne Games, and this time, is the main player, should this momentum end up making it all the way to a 2030 host contract. I hope it does. As far as the public question goes, if public support can be demonstrated by opinion poll versus a specific referendum vote, that is also an alternative pathway to show public support - as it was for Brisbane where opnion polls were used and a specific public vote on Olympic hosting was never held. However, in Brisbane’s case, the opnion polls consistently showed majority public support. Swedish public support will again play a major role in how far this gets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karenina Posted March 13 Report Share Posted March 13 If I were to hazard a guess, it would be easiest to move all of the short-track events over to Riga and leave the figure skating events in Stockholm, especially if synchro skating gets added with the new Elite 12 division the ISU has added to make it more viable as an Olympic sport. Figure skating already starts before the opening ceremonies because of the team event and the fact that the arena is shared with short-track. And short-track would like to add more Olympic medal events, especially the mixed team relays, etc. Synchro is very popular in Sweden, so it would make sense to add it to the Olympic program and have that event held in Stockholm. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baron-pierreIV Posted March 13 Report Share Posted March 13 26 minutes ago, Karenina said: If I were to hazard a guess, it would be easiest to move all of the short-track events over to Riga and leave the figure skating events in Stockholm, especially if synchro skating gets added with the new Elite 12 division the ISU has added to make it more viable as an Olympic sport. Figure skating already starts before the opening ceremonies because of the team event and the fact that the arena is shared with short-track. And short-track would like to add more Olympic medal events, especially the mixed team relays, etc. Synchro is very popular in Sweden, so it would make sense to add it to the Olympic program and have that event held in Stockholm. Well, you know how that Team Event went in Beijing. Up to now, they haven't made a resolution. It's all anti-climactic. And together with synchornized, how many MORE beds in the OV will they be adding to accommodate Synchro? If at least 6 nations (anything less than that looks ridiculous), with what? 20 athletes/staff per team -- that means at least 120 MORE spaces in the OV. Together with the silly Team Event (how many countries have entrants in all FOUR FS disciplines? Again, just 5 or 6; and without Russia back, it just comes down to USA, Canada, Japan, France, Italy, maybe Germany, Korea? Even for the Worlds which start on March 20, China is only sending ONE Pairs couple entry when they used to be very strong in the discipline. Without 10-12 countries competing, those 2 disciplines are just TOO lame to include in a WOG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karenina Posted March 13 Report Share Posted March 13 4 minutes ago, baron-pierreIV said: Well, you know how that Team Event went in Beijing. Up to now, they haven't made a resolution. It's all anti-climactic. And together with synchornized, how many MORE beds in the OV will they be adding to accommodate Synchro? If at least 6 nations (anything less than that looks ridiculous), with what? 20 athletes/staff per team -- that means at least 120 MORE spaces in the OV. Together with the silly Team Event (how many countries have entrants in all FOUR FS disciplines? Again, just 5 or 6; and without Russia back, it just comes down to USA, Canada, Japan, France, Italy, maybe Germany, Korea? Even for the Worlds which start on March 20, China is only sending ONE Pairs couple entry when they used to be very strong in the discipline. Without 10-12 countries competing, those 2 disciplines are just TOO lame to include in a WOG. I agree about Synchro needing approximately 120 spaces in the OV, minimum, presuming they intro with just 6 teams (which seems reasonable). As far as the Team Event is concerned, countries can't qualify unless they have entries qualified in at least 2 individual disciplines and they can only add an extra skater/team in one discipline for the TE, with a max of 5 additional TE and/or host quota spots for figure skating total - so the max # of figure skaters is capped at 30 men, 30 women, 24 dance teams, and 19 pairs teams = 151 athletes+support personnel. It's hard to say how many support personnel wind up at the Olympics in total because so many elite skaters share coaches/training centers. With all due respect (and that's not much for someone who calls the Team Event "silly")... There are 16 countries with entrants in at least 3 disciplines at Worlds this year - Canada, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Great Britain, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, & USA. Korea should have entrants in 3, maybe all 4 disciplines next season (their jr dance team just won the silver at Jr Worlds and will be moving up to seniors next season, and they have a new pairs team that hasn't competed internationally yet). There are some other countries that could wind up fielding entrants in 3 or 4 disciplines by next year's Worlds (Sweden, Finland, Israel, Austria, Switzerland, Australia & Spain). Korea is so strong, by the way, in the singles disciplines, along with the success of their junior dance team, that they're looking pretty solid to qualify for World Team Trophy this year (6 teams, held in odd-numbered years, points earned the same way the Olympic TE are earned) without any pairs points. The sport, overall, is showing a remarkable level of depth, across all disciplines, even without the presence of Russia. If I had to guess who would qualify for the 2026 TE almost 3 years out... Canada, France, Georgia, Italy, Korea, Japan, USA and then three of China, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, & Ukraine. And, right now, Japan would be the betting favorite to win the gold, with Italy and Korea coming on strong as potential medal spoilers, along with the USA. But, take all that with a grain of salt, because if you'd asked skating fans in 2019 who were potential medal spoilers for Beijing, China and Italy would have been high on that list and China barely made the FS round, while Italy couldn't even qualify a woman for the individual event and had to use a quota spot for their TE woman, and Georgia was on the radar of NO ONE and barely missed out on the FS round to China. China can only send one entrant to Worlds in every discipline this year because they didn't send anyone to compete at Worlds last year. Their pairs program is definitely in a rebuilding phase with Sui/Han taking some time off and Peng/Jin recovering from injury. There's potential in the three teams they've sent out to compete internationally this season, but they're not on the same level as their predecessors yet. As it is, the pairs discipline has been interesting enough without the Russians. Italy is building a VERY healthy pairs program and the US and Canada have some promising newer and/or younger teams. The Netherlands has two pairs teams that have started to gel this season and will both be at Worlds. I don't think anyone would make an argument that the discipline is technically better without the Russians, but I actually think it is, long-term, healthier for the discipline, to have them out of international competition right now. There are competitive opportunities that have been opened up to these other teams and they are improving, tremendously, by having these experiences. The Russians just sort of sucked all the air out of the room, same with the women's discipline, and while it's not always easy to watch skaters struggle to find their competitive nerve, it certainly does make for more unpredictable and exciting competitions when it's sort of anyone's competition to win. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AustralianFan Posted March 13 Report Share Posted March 13 3 hours ago, Karenina said: If I were to hazard a guess, it would be easiest to move all of the short-track events over to Riga and leave the figure skating events in Stockholm, especially if synchro skating gets added with the new Elite 12 division the ISU has added to make it more viable as an Olympic sport. Figure skating already starts before the opening ceremonies because of the team event and the fact that the arena is shared with short-track. And short-track would like to add more Olympic medal events, especially the mixed team relays, etc. Synchro is very popular in Sweden, so it would make sense to add it to the Olympic program and have that event held in Stockholm. Agreed. So, we’re looking at in this discussion of Latvia hosting the following events: sliding events short track events some ice hockey preliminaries, and inclusion of Latvia in the Closing Ceremony multi-location concept originally mooted in the 2026 bid. A satellite athletes village in Latvia would also be appropriate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted March 13 Report Share Posted March 13 11 hours ago, Sir Rols said: That said, they did reassure me that in the unlikely chance it comes off, that javisst I’d naturally have free beds across the country, from Stockholm to Falun to points close to Åre come 2030. Apparently I’ve even got distant rels I didn’t know know about in Riga. But not to make my next visit conditional on the games - they wanna see me anyway come what may. 9 hours ago, Sir Rols said: was shocked to realise it’s been almost 15 years since I’ve last been back there. I really must return - it’s such a magical country. I prefer it in Midsommar to winter, though. Much better to visit Stockholm in June than February. That way you will have light and warmth instead of darkness and possibly sludge and/or cold rain. Riga is well worth visiting, as are the other Baltic capitals, regardless of circumstances (better in summer though). Very different styles all three of them. The Latvian 2030 connection was actually mentioned in three out of the four main dailies in Sweden. In all three cases the same 10 line newsagency text that only mentioned sliding events in Sigulda. Remember that so far, when Sweden is mentioned in connection to the winter games in 2030 in international media that actually means SOK. As your relative so rightly noted, WOG in Stockholm would be a miracle. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryker Posted March 16 Report Share Posted March 16 On 3/12/2023 at 9:46 PM, AustralianFan said: As far as the public question goes, if public support can be demonstrated by opinion poll versus a specific referendum vote, that is also an alternative pathway to show public support - as it was for Brisbane where opnion polls were used and a specific public vote on Olympic hosting was never held. However, in Brisbane’s case, the opnion polls consistently showed majority public support. Swedish public support will again play a major role in how far this gets. The major problem with public opinion polls is they can be biased or manipulated to yield desired results. There's plenty of evidence for that so I highly doubt a public opinion poll would be enough to avoid the inevitable referendum especially in a county where public and government support is tepid at best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iceman530 Posted March 17 Author Report Share Posted March 17 I think it would actually be best for everyone just to get the referendum done and over with ASAP. That way we know truly if Sweden is in or out. If not, move on ASAP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted March 17 Report Share Posted March 17 Referenda should be handled with care. Those voting should be aware of the consequences of all alternatives (or at least have the possbility to be informed). All too often referenda options, or at least one of them, are very vague when it comes to definition and consequences. A meaningful referendum can only be held when there is a thouroughly elaborated bid produced and pros and cons better known. This will take a lot of time especially when you included the necessary time for a campaign. Further, since much of the cost and other consequences (such as police "depravation") would fall on the entire country, you'd need a national referendum. Those are costly if you don¨t combine them with another election. All this means that any referendum about a WOG in Stockholm-Åre-Falun-Östersund-Sigulda-Riga(?)-Karlstad(?) probably would only be held in June 2024 together with the elections for the European Parliament. However, it's more than likely that the project will have been killed off long before that. If you have a closer look at SOK's 2026 bid it was seriously flawed in many, many ways. Those flaws could be overcome if there is strong political will to spend the necessary money. A political will so far absent. The timing is not exactly the best for a new WOG bid. * The economy is weak. * Stockholm already has a multi-billion project with rapidly escalating costs (projected 12 GSEK, latest estimate 21 GSEK) * IOC handling of Russian and Belarus participation in Paris not popular and brings home that IOC may impose poltical conditions on Sweden that the country would hate. * International sports federations in general are considered by many as a bunch of corrupt old men. Epitomized by Mr Usmanov, who is a very good friend of Mr Bach's. (Search on Drakenberg and FIE) The political situation is also very tricky. On municipal level in Stockholm the city is run by a coalition of Social Democrats, Left party and Greens. While the local leader of the Social Democrats may be the one politician in favor of a WOG (she has been very silent this time) she is not prepared to risk the coalition with the anti-WOG parties. The main opposition party, the Moderates (conservatives), was the party that de facto pulled the plug on the 2022 and 2026 bids. On the national level the leader of the main oppostion party, Social Democarats, had the following reaction to the news of SOK's latest atttempt: "Sigh" The Moderate-led government has been extremely non-committal. They would also need to clear this, like anything else, with the nationalist-populist Sweden Democrats. The Sweden Democrats don't like wogs. Apart from the financial cost/risk, they most likely would find the law and order aspect unacceptable. Law and order is one of their pillars. Sweden has too few police officers. Recruitment of qualified police officers is lagging behind plans. In that situation it would be problematic to allocate some 2 million police hours to a WOG. (Military is strictly forbidden to perform police duties). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted March 20 Report Share Posted March 20 Interesting point about the need to use Sigulda for sliding - Sweden did indeed, until the early 2000s, have its own sliding track, at Hammarstrand, near Ostersund (and I assume earmarked in its pervious Ostersund Oly bids). Built in 1964, before Lillehammer it was the only sliding track in Scandinavia, and regularly hosted FIL events and world championships. There seems to be some campaign to re-open/refurbish it but, of course, there was no mention of it in the 2026 bid or mentions regarding 2030, so I assume it’s not on the cards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted March 20 Report Share Posted March 20 On 3/11/2023 at 10:37 PM, Sigh said: One main objection was the insufficient infrastructure (mainly accomodation) in Falun. Now many more outdoors events are supposed to be located in Falun than in the 2026 bid. I’m a bit surprised about that. I know Falun fairly well (I have cousins in Dalarna) and was always under the impression that the whole region is a popular tourism centre within Sweden. Not to mention the region also annually hosts the Vasaloppet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted March 20 Report Share Posted March 20 REPORT IOC EVALUATION COMMISSION OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES 2026 Page 35: "A large portion of the hotel rooms in Åre and Falun would be used by stakeholders, leaving limited hotel capacity for spectators and workforce." Those who spend the one night locally before Vasaloppet mostly do so under conditions not acceptable for most people, except possibly for one night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted March 20 Report Share Posted March 20 6 minutes ago, Sigh said: Those who spend the one night locally before Vasaloppet mostly do so under conditions not acceptable for most people, except possibly for one night. I assume you mean camping. Yet that was one of the particular successes of Lillehammer and helped set it apart as a spectacular winter games - the HUGE number of Swedes and local Norwegians who came to camp and watch (particularly the cross country events). It was examples like this (and the strong spectator numbers in Sydney and London) that helped lift those games beyond he merely technical successful. I’d always thought that was something Sweden would be able to achieve at a winter games too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoshi Posted March 20 Report Share Posted March 20 I can't see Bach and co going straight from requiring a personal bowl of seasonal fruit at their bedside in a plush Oslo hotel to camping out in February in the middle of Sweden though, and I suspect that's what the evaluation commission aim their reports at Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted March 21 Report Share Posted March 21 11 minutes ago, yoshi said: I can't see Bach and co going straight from requiring a personal bowl of seasonal fruit at their bedside in a plush Oslo hotel to camping out in February in the middle of Sweden though, and I suspect that's what the evaluation commission aim their reports at Oh no, it wouldn’t be Bach camping out (Rogge might have, though). They’re the ones who’ll be in their hotel rooms. Whether they build more hotels or not, a Scandinavian games would inevitably bring out the en-masse campers though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigh Posted March 21 Report Share Posted March 21 Actually, camping could be a good idea. However, Vasaloppet is not really relevant to WOG. From what I've heard the sleeping arrangements for most at Vasaloppet is a step down from a low-end homeless shelter (there you at least have beds). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baron-pierreIV Posted March 21 Report Share Posted March 21 (edited) Drop the friggin' sliding events -- then you would have no need for SIgulda! Or can Paris contribute the Beauborg Musee as the 2026 sliding track? Edited March 21 by baron-pierreIV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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