As cities fall by the wayside, giving up their bids to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, residents of Metro Vancouver, including Richmond, can be excused for wondering: Could we, should we, do it all over again? The 2018 Games will take place in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
After that, it's up in the air. Right now there are only two solid bids for the 2022 Games - Beijing/Zhangjiakou (200 kilometres from the Chinese capital) and Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Beijing just held the 2008 Summer Games; Kazakhstan is ruled by strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev as his personal fiefdom.
Would it make sense then, given most of the infrastructure is in place, for Vancouver/Whistler to bid again? "My answer to that," said Malcolm Brodie, mayor of Richmond, "is I think 2010 and the Olympics were a special time in our history, a time none of us will ever forget ... but I don't think it's realistic to do it again in 2022.
"It's not like just putting on a track meet, it's a complete cultural and artistic
endeavour and you're immersed for years in it."
Richmond's legacy is the Olympic Oval, which today houses courts for badminton, basketball and volleyball, three FIFAapproved soccer pitches, two Olympic-sized ice rinks, indoor rowing and a fitness centre.
"Richmond got a tremendous legacy, but it
doesn't mean we have the energy or resources to host the Games again," Brodie said.
A short list for 2022 will be announced in July, with the winning city announced in July, 2015 at the 127th International Olympic Committee.
There are only four names currently on the list, and two are iffy.
Oslo's bid has the backing of only 35 per cent of Norwegians and the junior partner in Norway's coalition government has withdrawn its support.
Lviv, Ukraine has put its bid on hold, with the country having other issues occupying it these days.
Krakow this week also withdrew its bid after the Polish city held a referendum that resulted in 70 per cent of citizens voting against the Olympics.
Stockholm pulled its bid from the table in January, pointing to the billions spent on facilities that are often not used again.
Munich voters resoundingly said no to the Games last fall, and next door in Switzerland voters rejected a proposed bid by Davos/St. Moritz.
That leaves the bids from China and Kazakhstan, countries that don't believe in referendums.
In Vancouver, a spokesman for the mayor's office said: "This is not something the City is considering."
One VANOC member said there's no way Metro Vancouver could do it again in 2022, that the bid process takes up years of people's lives.
"You have no idea what it takes to organize a Games," he said. "It's so much more than having the infrastructure in place."
