Winter Olympics 2026: Calgary and Stockholm to proceed for bid

The cities of Calgary and Stockholm and an Italian bid involving Cortina D'Ampezzo and Milan were given the green light on Thursday to proceed to bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics, but Turkey's Erzurum was dropped, the International Olympic Committee said.

The IOC Executive Board decided on the recommendation during a meeting earlier on Thursday and this will now be ratified by the IOC session in the next days.

The three cities are the last of initially seven candidates with Swiss city Sion, Japan's Sapporo and Graz in Austria pulling out in recent months, scared off by the cost and size as well as local opposition to the big event.

The IOC will elect the winning bid at its session in September 2019.