Sapporo may delay Winter Games bid to 2034, says Japan Olympic chief

TOKYO – Japan could push its Winter Olympics bid back four years to 2034 following corruption scandals related to the Tokyo Games, the country’s Olympic chief has warned.

The northern city of Sapporo in Hokkaido has been aiming to host the 2030 Games, but Japanese Olympic Committee president Yasuhiro Yamashita said that it would be “difficult to move ahead without gaining people’s understanding”.

His comments come as prosecutors investigate allegations of bribery and bid-rigging at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, which were postponed to 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Local media reported Yamashita as saying that he would discuss the bid with Sapporo’s mayor, who won re-election on Sunday ahead of two anti-Olympic candidates.

He added that the talks would include the option of bidding to host the Games in 2034 instead of 2030.

He also said the mayoral election had “made it clear that a lot of people in the city have concerns and anxieties” about the bid.

An exit poll by Jiji news agency found that a majority of voters oppose Sapporo hosting the Winter Olympics in 2030.

Of 651 voters surveyed after casting their ballots, 53 per cent said they opposed hosting the Games, while 27 per cent were in favour and 20 per cent expressed no opinion.

The city of Sapporo has already said that it will not hold a public referendum on hosting the Games.

But it announced in December that it would

stop actively promoting the bid

and hold a nationwide poll to gauge support.

In recent years, the already short list of possible candidates to hold the Winter Olympics has become even shorter.

Headline-grabbing cost overruns have made cities wary of building venues for sports like ski jumping and bobsleigh with limited appeal beyond the Games.

Another factor is that climate change has rapidly shrunk the number of potential hosts that can promise real snow.

Alternative host candidates for the 2030 Games have been dropping out, with Salt Lake City now expressing a preference for 2034 instead.

Other bids have been withdrawn, including those from Vancouver and Barcelona-Zaragoza.

But Stockholm-Are in Sweden announced in February that it was considering throwing its hat in the ring for 2030.

Even if Sapporo’s 2030 bid collapses, the 1972 hosts will remain a tempting Olympic candidate for 2034 as the International Olympic Committee emphasises making the Games more environmentally and economically sustainable.

A 2022 study projecting the impact of climate change on the Winter Olympics’ future said that, by mid-century, Sapporo may be one of the last cities in Asia capable of reliably holding the Games without resorting to artificial snow.

But for that to happen, the city will need to repair the damage done by the Tokyo scandal, said Ryuichi Kasuga, a sports consultant who worked on the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

“They need to demonstrate that they can make a bid and hold an Olympics properly,” he said.

“Otherwise, Japan’s Olympics movement is over.”

AFP, NYTIMES