SALT LAKE CITY ― The International Olympic Committee executive board announced on Thursday that it has officially dropped Turkey as a potential host for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
“The timing for 2026 is challenging. The concentration of investment in general infrastructures such as accommodation, transport, energy and telecoms would be extremely high,” the IOC said in a statement. “Significant investment would also be needed in sports venues.
“The region has limited experience in hosting major international winter sports events and would benefit from organizing further World Cups, World Championships and the Youth Olympic Games," the statement said.
According to NBC Sports, this means the three remaining bids of Calgary, Canada, Stockholm, Sweden, and Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, will be the proposed finalists for the 2026 Games.
A special IOC session will be held next week to approve the finalists. The final host city decision will be made next year.
According to Sports Illustrated, the United States Olympic committee informed the IOC earlier this year that Salt Lake City, which last hosted the Winter Games in 2002, would be interested in hosting them again in 2030. The U.S. committee also named Denver and the Reno-Tahoe area as potential 2030 bids.
Originally the goal for a U.S. bid was set for 2026, but after Los Angeles was awarded the 2028 Summer Games, U.S. officials set their eyes on 2030 instead.
Recently, there has been talk of the Winter Olympics returning to Utah, too.
Fraser Bullock, chief operating officer of the 2002 Winter Games, told the Deseret News last year the campaign to bring the Olympics back to Salt Lake City has been a topic of conversation for quite some time.
That conversation got a lot more serious last October when Utah officials formed an exploratory committee to assess the city’s ability to host another Olympics.
Last month, we reported Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski traveled with other officials to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to pitch the Utah bid to U.S. Olympic officials. Biskupski has been a longtime supporter of bringing the Games back, citing the city's success hosting the 2002 Winter Games as one of her reasons.
"It makes total sense," she said. "I know that, as a city, it is in our hearts and minds how amazing that event was, and we would welcome another Olympics."