Report outlines details of possible Swiss 2030 Winter Olympics bid

Swiss participants at the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games on February 4, 2022. Keystone / Roman Pilipey

The 2030 Winter Olympics could be held in sites dotted across Switzerland using existing sports infrastructure, according to a feasibility study for a Swiss candidacy seen by Swiss newspapers.

Swiss Olympic and the winter sports federations are currently carrying out preliminary work into the possibility of a bid.

“The sports umbrella organisation Swiss Olympic and the winter sports associations are pushing ahead with their plans for the 2030 Winter Olympics in Switzerland at high speed,” Tamedia newspapers reportedExternal link on Thursday.

According to their plans, the opening ceremony of the 2030 Winter Games would take place in Lausanne and the closing ceremony would be in Bern, the newspapers wrote.

The venues for the individual disciplines also seem to be largely fixed, they added.

+ The 1948 Games in St Moritz

“The plan is to hold the competitions from bobsleigh to alpine skiing wherever international championships in these disciplines are about to take place. In this way, existing or planned stadiums and infrastructures can be used. This saves money and protects the environment,” they said.

Ruth Wipfli-Steinegger, vice-president of Swiss Olympic, confirmed that possible sites had already been earmarked for 13 of the 14 sporting disciplines. These include Crans-Montana for Alpine skiing events, Davos for cross-country skiing and Zurich/Fribourg for ice hockey.

“The only thing missing is speed skating. The ongoing feasibility study will show how we deal with this. Outsourcing to another country is also possible,” she declared.

The Swiss Sports Parliament, Swiss Olympic’s top decisional body, will decide on whether to launch a Swiss bid on November 24. The International Olympic Committee is set to choose a candidate for the 2030 Winter Olympics in summer 2024.

Sports Minister Viola Amherd has said she is in favour of a Winter Olympic Games that are “sustainable, tailor-made for Switzerland and widely supported”.

+ Sports minister backs Swiss Winter Olympics

Whether local voters can be convinced is another matter. In the past 35 years Switzerland has attempted to win the prestigious event eight times but has never succeeded.

In February 2017, voters in canton Graubünden rejected a proposal to host the Winter Olympics in 2026 – the second such bid to be turned down at the ballot box in four years.

+ Why voters said ‘No’ to the Olympics

Then in June 2018 voters in canton Valais said no to bidding for the 2026 Games. The bid was rejected in some of the largest ski areas in the canton, including Zermatt and Nendaz – the latter linked to the fashionable resort of Verbier. Crans-Montana and Saas-Fee were two mountain resorts where voters approved the bid.

The Alpine country has so far hosted the Winter Olympics on two occasions – in 1928 and 1948 – both times in St Moritz.