The host of 2026 Winter Olympics has been chosen.
Italy’s Milan-Cortina won the bid for the Winter Olympics over Sweden’s Stockholm-Are bid (47of 82 votes).
This, after the other four candidates (Switzerland’s Sion, Japan’s Sapporo, Austria’s Graz, and Canada’s Calgary) all withdrew their bids due to size and cost concerns. The final decision came down to two less than ideal options. Milan, known for its air pollution almost as much as it’s known for fashion combined with Cortina the tiny resort town in the Alps 255 miles away. Or Stockholm-Are another city-resort combination separated by 409 miles. The previous Winter Olympic bidding process for the 2022 games was between Beijing, China and Almaty, Kazakhstan not exactly desirable locations.
This will be Italy’s third time hosting the Winter Olympics (Cortina d’Ampezzo-1956 and Torino-2006). Sweden is 0-8 in bidding for the Olympics. Future bidders will need to hold a referendum on the Olympics before they can apply. The last nine measures put up for vote have failed to pass.
A Notable moment from Italy’s presentation had Italian snowboarder Michela Moioli and skier Sofia Goggia hitting the dab at the end of their presentation.
Flip the page to see the winner being announced.