Fred's, (Used to be Barb's), Board

It is now official: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/calga ... ssion=true

Calgary is one of seven cities, or joint-bidding cities, that have expressed interest in hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said on Tuesday.

Austria's Graz, Swedish capital Stockholm, Sion in Switzerland, Turkey's Erzurum, Japan's Sapporo and a joint bid from Italy's Cortina d'Ampezzo, Milan and Turin are also in the initial process.

The cities will now enter a dialogue stage until October when the IOC will invite an unspecified number of them to take part in the one-year candidature phase.

The IOC has overhauled the bidding process for Games after a sharp slump in interest from potential cities in recent years, cutting costs for bid cities and slashing the campaign time in half. It has also simplified the seven-year preparation for Games organizers, reducing costs, upping the IOC's contribution and allowing host cities more flexibility in planning for the Olympics and the post-Games use of facilities.

I still think hosting Olympic games puts unreasonable financial burdens on the taxpayers of the host city, province (in Canada's case) and the country. The Summer and Winter games should be held in the same location every term with the IOC members contributing for upkeep, running costs, etc. Also allowing countries to participate with one or two athletes is ludicrous although I have no ready answer as to how those athletes should be able to achieve their Olympic dreams. The same goes for adding more and more sports. Perhaps the IOC could do away with "countires" and any athlete of any nationality can participate based on their achievements and merits alone. Wow that sounds revolutionary and unattainable, don't shoot, just my humble opinion.