MADRID: Barcelona mayor Xavier Tiras confirmed yesterday that the Catalan capital will not bid for the Winter Olympics in 2022, suggesting that the city would instead present its candidacy for 2026.
“The conditions to win the 2022 edition are not right and we have to concentrate our efforts and commitment to work and win the Winter Olympics in 2026,” he said after meeting the Spanish government, national and international Olympic committees.
Barcelona hosted the summer games in 1992 and began to work on a bid to become the first city to host both summer and winter games in 2010 with a candidacy that would see events split between Barcelona and ski resorts in the nearby Pyrenees.
However, there was widespread political scepticism surrounding the bid in a time of economic crisis in Spain, particularly after Madrid’s failed bid to host the 2020 summer games.
“We have to work to widen the consensus as much as we can. We also need to work on defining an ambitious sporting plan,” said Tiras.AFP
