The information was leaked last week. It is now official: Sapporo is renouncing its candidacy for the Winter Games in 2030. She is withdrawing from a race where she led the train for a long time, before putting her project on hold, pushed to the side by the scandal of corruption linked to the Tokyo 2020 Games.

The news of the resignation of the capital of Hokkaido prefecture, already host of the Winter Games in 1972, was announced on Wednesday October 11 during a press conference in Tokyo. It brought together the mayor of Sapporo, Katsuhiro Akimoto (photo above, left), and the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC), Yasuhiro Yamashita (right in the photo).

Both men agreed: the corruption cases at the Tokyo 2020 Games have caused too much damage to public opinion to continue the race with any chance of winning. “ Since last year's revelations of problems surrounding the Tokyo Games, distrust of the Games has increased., assured the mayor. “ Continuing the project in such a context could have caused irreparable harm to Olympism, Paralympism and sporting values., insisted the president of the JOC.

End of story, then. At least for now. Sapporo officially withdraws from a race now reduced to four applicants – Salt Lake City, Sweden, Switzerland and the French Alps – but Japan continues to eye the Winter Games.

Yasuhiro Yamashita suggested on Wednesday October 11 to the mayor of Sapporo to postpone his ambitions for the Games in 2034, or even a more distant edition in the event that the IOC decides next year to award the 2030 vintages in a double vote. and 2034. Katsuhiro Akimoto seems to have heard it. But the mayor of Sapporo, long very enthusiastic, is now more reserved. “ The situation today is very difficult, he admitted to the media. We will need to carefully consider our future options. It's too early to decide. We will gauge public sentiment at the appropriate time. »

After Vancouver and the Spanish file built around Barcelona and the Pyrenees, the IOC therefore loses a new candidate. Unlike the first two, his renunciation is linked neither to the costs of the event nor to the absence of a political consensus. But the result is the same.