Time is running out for Spain. But the winds turn out to be contrary. Mired for several months in endless quarrels between Catalonia and Aragon, the candidacy of the Pyrenees and Barcelona for the Winter Games in 2030 is slipping and getting bogged down.
Latest hiccup: the postponement of an inspection visit by an IOC delegation. It was scheduled for May. It is postponed, but without a new date.
The president of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), Alejandro Blanco, himself told the media, explaining that such a visit could not take place in the current situation. But the leader insisted: the next few weeks promise to be decisive.
« May will be the last moment to make everything absolutely clear, explained Alejandro Blanco. We are in a hurry because the IOC was due to come in May to see the facilities and we had to delay the visit. We are now close to the limit. If things do not move forward by May, we will have to consider a new approach. »
Engaged in a speed race to complete the technical file, Alejandro Blanco thought he had achieved the most difficult thing by obtaining the green light from the Spanish government. But the Olympic leader had underestimated a major obstacle: politics.
The battle between the two regions affected by the Pyrenees-Barcelona 2030 project, Catalonia and Aragon, has gained further momentum in recent weeks with the revelation of the map of sites. It provides for a sharing of disciplines between the two regions: alpine skiing, snowboarding, artistic skiing and ski mountaineering in the Pyrenees, plus ice hockey in Barcelona; biathlon, cross-country skiing, skating (artistic, speed and short-track) and curling in Aragon.
The device has obtained the approval of the Spanish authorities. Catalonia accepted it. But Aragon did not want it, finding it unfair and poorly balanced. Its representatives even went so far as to boycott a work meeting at the beginning of April. Their seats remained empty.
Since then, Alejandro Blanco has been trying to put the pieces back together. “ Our application has been approved by the Spanish governmentthere, he insists. We want to do these Winter Games with Catalonia and Aragon. This is our approach and our vision. We don't have another one. At this stage, we do not yet have an agreement. But we will fight to keep moving forward. The important thing is that we get the Games in Spain. They will benefit everyone"
A new meeting is planned in the coming days. It will put the question of the distribution of sites and sports between the two regions back on the table. Without being announced as decisive, it could finally unblock the tensions, or on the contrary bog down the project a little further.
At the same time, Salt Lake City is advancing its pawns. The capital of Utah has not yet formally decided between trying its luck for the Games in 2030, at the risk of commercial competition with Los Angeles 2028, or aiming instead for the 2034 edition. But the Americans do not want don't hang around on the way.
Unlike the Spaniards, they will receive a visit from the IOC in the coming days. Led by the Romanian Octavian Morariu, the president of the commission for the future host of the Winter Games, the delegation sent by Lausanne must go to Salt Lake City from April 27 to 29. Three non-stop days to inspect the proposed sites, meet the project leaders and weigh the pros and cons of the American application.
The IOC visit to Utah will be the first since the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) designated Salt Lake City as a candidate city for the Winter Games in December 2018.
