Race to get the 2026 Olympic Winter Games tightens

It's still a year left until the IOC decides on which city will get to host the 2026 Olympic Winter Games, but the field of candidates is already down to just two contenders after St. Moritz, the only remaining European Union candidate city, withdrew its application yesterday. The EU applicant was the last remaining uncontroversial candidate, and many now fear that the ultimate vote of the IOC will only reflect existing political divisions.

The leader of the St. Moritz campaign for the games, Vreni Schneider, said last night, "It saddens us to have to do this, but we have no choice but to concede defeat, no matter how hard we've tried to plan for this, with snow cannons and artificial snow. The sad fact of the matter is that it's no longer possible to stage events like this in the Alps due to climate change. A generation ago we would have been able to have a winter event almost anywhere in the region, but these days we're unlikely to get subzero temperatures even at the height of what should be winter."

This leaves the US and the Chinese as the last two remaining candidates, and the choice of either would mean the risk of a major boycott, but no other potential candidate city now seems to be located in a region that would guarantee proper winter conditions for the games. Pierre Coubertin, the Canadian chairman of the IOC, tried to downplay the political aspects of the bid for the games, "This is about sports, and people who love sports. We should set aside our differences and try to come together at events like this." His plea is unlikely to be heeded.

The Chinese winter resort Xia Shang was built on the ruins of Lhasa after the Chinese destroyed the city in 2011, when it rose up in a final desperate bid for Tibetan independence. Unsurprisingly, human rights activists are already preparing to launch a campaign for all Western powers to boycott the games if the Chinese win.

The US candidate is hardly less controversial, the town of McMurdo in the US state of Lincoln, a state that was created less than five years ago when the United States annexed most of Antarctica and started to tap into its vast natural resources, setting off a huge uproar even amongst its NATO partners. Environmentalists are fuming at the thought of an event like the Olympic Games being brought there, which will mean massive building projects and tens of thousands of visitors to what is one of the world's most sensitive areas.

As always when the Olympic Games are to be awarded, accusations of partisanship and bribery are rife, with most thinking that the winner will be the candidate city with the deepest pockets, in this case most probably the Chinese. The world will find out in July next year, when the IOC convenes for the final vote in Lausanne. Whatever the decision, it's bound to be unpopular.