The race for the Winter Games in 2022 has not yet officially started. The five cities that have submitted a candidacy file to the IOC are, to date, only “applicants”. They will only become “candidates” after being selected by the executive commission in July 2014. But at least two of them, the Norwegian Oslo and the Ukrainian Lviv, are already going through difficult times.

In the case of Oslo, it could prove more difficult to convince the population than the members of the IOC. A poll published at the end of last week by the very conservative magazine Minerva reveals that 56% of Norwegians would be opposed to the idea of ​​the government providing a financial guarantee for the capital's candidacy. This opposition is a little lower among residents of Oslo (49% unfavorable opinions), but it still remains in the majority.

Norwegians still have a great passion for the Games and the Winter Olympic disciplines. No one has forgotten the popular success and enthusiasm aroused by the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994. But, in these times of crisis, the population considers it inappropriate for the public authorities to put their hand into their wallets to finance the event . According to several studies, the cost of the Winter Games in 2022 in Oslo could reach 2,5 to 3 billion euros in public spending.

In Lviv, the protest is not targeted at the city's Olympic ambitions. But its damage is no less visible. Long limited to the capital, kyiv, the opposition movement to the ruling regime has spread to other regions of the country. Oleg Salo, the governor of Lviv, the first “requester” city in the history of Ukraine, left his feathers there. He even agreed to resign at the request of the demonstrators.

Six months before the IOC's publication of the "short list" of candidate cities, the race for the 2022 Games appears quite confusing. Announced favorite, Oslo will first have to convince the Norwegian population. Lviv is facing a political crisis whose outcome seems very uncertain. Beijing has little chance, after the successive victories of Pyeongchang for the 2018 Games and Tokyo for the 2020 Games. Same thing for Almaty, in Kazakhstan. Krakow, in Poland, associated with Slovakia, has therefore emerged as a default choice.