Yesterday (22 June 2010) the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Munich, Annecy and PyeongChang ( South Korea) have all been selected as Candidate Cities to host the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, which means the three cities will move on to the second phase of the bidding procedure.
Yesterday’s decision was based on an analysis of venues, transport, accommodation, security in each of the cities in order to establish their technical potential for staging successful Olympic Winter Games in 2018. All three cities were accepted, however the IOC did ask Annecy to review its plans for dispersed sports venues by the next stage of the bidding process.
This is exciting news for us as it means the 2018 Olympics could be coming to the Chamonix Valley. The Kandahar run on the Verte piste at Les Houches (and one of the ski stations of the Chamonix Valley) is part of the Annecy bid. The Kandahar is one of the classic races of the World Cup skiing season and has been regularly hosting Word Cup Ski events since 1924.
The next stage of the 2018 Winter Olympics bidding process is 11 January 2011, when the three cities are required to submit their Candidature File to the IOC. This will be followed by visits to the cities by the IOC Evaluation Committee during Feb-Mar with a final technical briefing in May 2011. The final decision will be made during the 123rd IOC Session in Durban on 6 July 2011.
