Olympic curling flipflops in our future?
I tuned in to watch an Olympic host cities announcement and all I saw was a major curling country get bodied. Thrown out of the room, if you will.
This after that same country finished second in a few Olympic hosting decisions, most recently Milan-Cortina 2026.
Today the International Olympic Committee granted France and Salt Lake City, USA a double allocation host opportunity. Both regions are now considered “preferred hosts” of the 2030 and 2034 Olympic Winter Games with the final announcements confirming France 2030 and SLC 2034 to come at a July IOC session in Paris.
Then came the kicker: Switzerland, while being rejected for 2030 and ’34, received “special status” to enter into “privileged dialogue” to host the 2038 Winter Games. Or perhaps a Games after that, if 2038 doesn’t quite sit right.
The shocker is that Sweden has been unceremoniously dumped, after being in the running for such a long period of time. The IOC said their bid was “technically excellent” … so there’s that.
The country has now made eight failed hosting bids. That includes a 1978 vote for the 1984 Winter Games and a pullout from the race for 2022, which went to Beijing.
The Swiss don’t have a particularly good bid track record, either. They’ve hosted two Games—at St. Moritz way back in 1928 and 1948—but either lost or bailed out of eight other bid processes.
Here’s where things get a little wacky.
The idea that France will host a winter Games shortly after next year’s Paris summer Games seems insane. After all, the bid was just announced a few months ago.
And the proposed host site for curling—all the ice sports, in fact—is just wild.
Snow sports would be hosted in the alps (the Auverge-Rhône-Alpes region) but the rest of the Games would be geared around … Nice.
That’s the Côte d'Azur region.
That’s on the Mediterranean.
Don’t get me wrong … I’d love it. And you’d love it, too.
Sun block, flip flops and gelato on the way to the curling rink.
Okay, perhaps not quite like that. Apparently the February temperature in Nice is just 12 degrees celsius.
Maybe this can work after all. Although there is this thing called global warming, and it’s making traditionally cool places quite hot these days.
That’s why the IOC is doing this double allocation thing; it’s due to concerns over the threat of climate change on winter sports.
According to studies by the IOC’s future host commission for Winter Games, only 10 nations will be able to host the snow sports of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games by 2040.
It’s also worth noting that France’s only previous attempt to host Olympic curling was … un catastrophe.
The Roaring Game was a demonstration sport at Pralognan-la-Vanoise, part of the 1992 Albertville Games. The ice melted on two sheets, making them “virtually unplayable” and the other two sheets weren’t much better.
Canada men’s skip Kevin Martin, who has also been an ice technician throughout his career, offered to try and fix things but predictably—as he was a competitor—his offer was rejected.
Quel désastre.
Salt Lake City, meanwhile, will be a repeat of their 2002 hosting gig, right down to their sites for the opening and closing ceremonies, plus the sport venues.
This includes curling, which will be held out of town at the same 2002 arena in Ogden.
Martin, of course, missed a shot for the men’s gold that year in Ogden and fell to Norway’s Paal Trulsen.
Another Martin succeeded on the women’s side, as Scotland’s Rhona Martin (now Howie) threw the “Stone Of Destiny” to defeat Switzerland’s Luzia Ebnother.
I have to say I feel for the Swedes in all of this.
Sweden is the most successful Winter Olympic nation never to host the Games. Stockholm hosted the summer edition in 1912.
“Swedes have been a little more reluctant than the Italians in terms of welcoming the games but I think that it (is) part of our culture,” a 2026 bid member told the Associated Press after that bid took silver. “We don’t jump into things with huge excitement before knowing the details first.”
Support might have been a little lukewarm for the 2026 vote but according to the Swedish Olympic Committee, 70% of Swedes recently surveyed approved pursuing the 2030 Games under the right, cost-effective circumstances.
Ice sports would have been contested around Stockholm, with snow sports hosted in Aare, Oestersund and Falun.