Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Kamloops 2034 Winter Olympic Games

It is not too soon to look 26 years down the road to where the Olympic games will be and I believe the best choice for 2034 would be Kamloops BC.

In 2010 we have them in Vancouver. 2014 is in Sochi Russia. 2018 is likely to be in Asia because informally the games seemed to be destined to rotate between Europe, North America and Asia.

Here is how the last years have gone with the games

  • 1948 St Moritz - Europe - Alps
  • 1952 Oslo - Europe
  • 1956 Cortina - Europe - Alps
  • 1960 Squaw Valley - North America
  • 1964 Innsbruck - Europe - Alps
  • 1968 Grenoble - Europe -Alps
  • 1972 Sapporo - Asia
  • 1976 Innsbruck - Europe - Alps
  • 1980 Lake Placid - North America
  • 1984 Sarajevo - Europe
  • 1988 Calgary - North America
  • 1992 Albertville - Europe - Alps
  • 1994 Lillihammer - Europe
  • 1998 Nagano - Asia
  • 2002 Salt Lake City - North America
  • 2006 Turin - Europe - Alps
  • 2010 Vancouver - North America
  • 2014 Sochi - Europe
You can see from this that of the 18 games after World War 2, the games have ended in the Alps eight times. The Alps host on a regular basis and will always do so. Starting in 1972 the pattern changed and games in Asia and North America happened more often.

Games have a huge television audience and the US is one the biggest. The games have to be in North America regularly to get the audience here.

2018 should end up back in Asia, Harbin strikes me as the most likely location or PyeongChang South Korea. Much depends on the Beijing games go vis a vis human rights and such.

2022 should be in North America and should be in the US. I would lean towards Denver or Lake Tahoe/Reno. A US Winter Olympic would say to me that the next winter games in North America would be in Canada.

2026 Europe is most likely the location for these games and I would expect them to be in the Alps.

2030 is a wildcard, maybe in Asia, maybe in Chile or New Zealand.

2034 should be in North America again but not back in the US. This is the date for another games in Canada. The location will be up for grabs and whomever gets off the mark early and has a very good plan will be the city put forward by Canada. This is the date Kamloops should look at and prepare for.

Kamloops is certainly a large enough city to host the games. Yes, it needs a lot of infrastructure but this can all be done. The alpine can all be at Sun Peaks which would benefit from the increased facilities. The Kamloops Indian Band has a location that could serve as the Olympic grounds, there is enough space for the long track facility, there is enough space for a 20 000 seat arena, one which Kamloops can use now for concerts, hockey and other events.

The Airport would need to be expanded, but this expansion is very long overdue, it should have been done a generation ago.

Thompson Rivers University can provide the location for the athlete housing and then use it for student housing afterwards.

Kamloops 2034 - It Can Happen

4 comments:

Mr Squid said...

That is an interesting analysis, and Kamloops is a possibility. However, I suspect that the next Canadian Winter Olympics will be in Quebec since by 2034 we will have had two in western Canada and nothing in eastern Canada.

Personally, I would like to see the Winter Olympics held in Antarctica someday--at McMurdo perhaps?

Bernard said...

Yes, Quebec is an issue, but if Quebec can be convinced to try sooner and lose, then this opens it up for Kamloops.

Also, longer term prep and clear support from the BC government over the long term would make it realistic to put forward Kamloops as the candidate city.

Anonymous said...

Ya thats fine but i think quebec will get it in 2022 and the u.s will get in 2034 and i hope salt lake will get it again because i t was very successful there

Anonymous said...

Came across this post by fluke. And without giving my opinion on it since you probably won't like it, I was curious what your thoughts are 4.5 years after devising this. twitter: @vancan19