The project had been wiped off the map. He seemed buried in the dustbin of history. But he resurfaces, with a new face and a refined look. In the race for the 2030 Winter Games, Spain is still breathing. She did not give up her arms.

Against all expectations, the government of Catalonia pulled out of its hat last week a proposed bid for the Winter Games. In 2030 in the most optimistic scenario, but also the least realistic. For the 2034 edition in the most credible version.

Less than two months after the decision of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) to abandon the Pyrenees-Barcelona 2030 project, where the two regions of Catalonia and Aragon were supposed to make common cause (but never managed to hear about the distribution of sites), the Catalans are raising their finger again. This time, they do it alone. To hell with the idea that there is strength in numbers.

Laura Vilagrà, Minister of the Presidency, took advantage of a meeting of regional representatives to present the details of the project. Proof that things are moving quickly, and are not just fantasy, the system imagined by the Catalan authorities has already been posted online on the regional government website.

Without the slightest surprise, the new concept displays a family resemblance with the Pyrenees-Barcelona 2030 project. Catalonia retains the sites and sports which had been allocated to it. It adds others, initially planned in Aragon. The new Olympic and Paralympic plan proposes the construction of an ice sports center in Gavà, where curling would be played. Ski jumping would be relocated to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, host city of the Winter Games in 1984.

According to Laura Vilagrà, the candidacy would be a national project, already benefiting from a broad social and territorial consensus.

With this new map, is Spain back in the race? Not so fast. The IOC rules leave little room for doubt: a candidacy for the Games, winter and summer, must be presented by a national Olympic committee. To join the current campaign, Catalonia will therefore have to obtain the approval of the COE and its president, Alejandro Blanco.

At this stage of the process, the green light from the Spanish leader is not a formality. Alejandro Blanco had increased efforts, and attempts at conciliation between the two regions, to bring the Pyrenees-Barcelona 2030 project to fruition. After its failure, he suggested that he would be up for a new adventure, but not before the Games winter in 2034. It is not certain that the president of the COE will reverse his position and ride for Catalonia for the 2030 edition.

Another obstacle: time. The IOC has repeatedly reiterated in recent months its desire to nominate a preferred candidate, or even two, during the December meeting of its Executive Board. The session of the body in May and June 2023, scheduled for Mumbai, would then be invited to officially designate the host city of the event.

Four months before the first of the two deadlines, Spain is falling behind which seems very difficult to catch up, if not almost impossible. In the event that the Spanish Olympic Committee validates the Catalan project, it will be necessary to renew the dialogue with the commission of future hosts of the IOC Games, then present it with a solid file, on the technical and budgetary levels. And this, no later than November.

The three other candidates for the 2030 Winter Games – Sapporo in Japan, Salt Lake City in the United States and Vancouver in Canada – have already received a visit from a team of IOC experts. They also decided the question of the referendum. Spain is not there.

However, the Spanish cause is not lost. It could even benefit from a possible impoverishment of competition. The Americans in Salt Lake City have not yet chosen between 2030 and 2034. The Canadians in Vancouver, for their part, have not formally announced their decision to enter the battle.

If it happened that the two North American files withdrew, the IOC would then see the Catalan candidacy as the only option to avoid the disaster scenario of a single candidacy, led by Sapporo.