Three Cities In Frame For 2018 Winter Olympics

The International Olympic Committee has confirmed that the cities of Annecy in France, Munich in Germany and Pyeongchang in South Korea are the bidders to stage the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The three were the only cities to apply to the International Olympic Committee to host the Games in the smallest bidding field for three decades.

Pyeongchang, bidding for a third consecutive time, is the favourite, with Annecy the outsider.

The winning city will be decided in Durban, South Africa, on 6th July 2011.

The IOC approved Munich and Pyeongchang without any reservations, but said Annecy should review its sports venue plans.

Gilbert Felli, the IOC’s executive director of Olympic Games, told a news conference in Lausanne: ‘The expert group decided that the cities of Munich and Pyeongchang should be retained without reservation.

‘For Annecy, it will be retained but we are asking that the concept of its sports sites be reviewed.

‘We look forward to working with the three candidate cities and wish them good luck for the year of competition ahead.’

The three cities have been campaigning on a low-key basis since October when they applied to the IOC to host the games but now as official candidate cities they can launch more visible international lobbying efforts.

The finalists will have to submit their detailed bid proposals to the IOC by 11th January next year.

An IOC evaluation commission will visit each city next year and issue a report assessing the bids a month before the final vote.

It is the fewest number of Winter Games bids since 1981, when three finalists competed for the 1988 Olympics, which were awarded to the Canadian city of Calgary.

There were seven bids for the 1992 Games, four for 1994, six for 1998, nine for 2002 (cut to four finalists), six for 2006, eight for 2010 (reduced to four finalists) and seven for 2014 (decreased to three finalists).

Pyeongchang, located in the Alpensia mountains east of Seoul, narrowly lost out to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics and to Sochi, Russia, for the 2014 Games.

Korean bid chiefs say they have learned from those defeats and claim their games would be the most compact in history.

Munich is hoping to become the first city to host both the summer and winter Games after staging the 1972 Summer Olympics.

The Bavarian bid proposes holding ice events in Munich and snow competitions in the mountain resorts of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Koenigssee.

The Savoy lakeside resort of Annecy is making its first Olympic bid, although France has staged the Winter Games three times – Chamonix in 1924, Grenoble in 1968 and Albertville in 1992.

The bid proposes using eight ski resorts around Mont Blanc, including Chamonix, Megeve and Morzine.