BEIJING, CHINA - FEBRUARY 04: A large Olympic ring logo is seen inside the stadium during the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at the Beijing National Stadium on February 04, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
The 2022 Winter Olympics are being held but has the date, country and venue of the 2026 and 2030 Games been confirmed?
The 2022 Winter Olympics are underway in Beijing and many countries will be vying to finish the Games with as many medals as possible.
Planning and preparing for the Games isn’t all that easy. Stadiums have to be constructed and also villages have to be built for the participants.
The weather also plays a huge role in the Winter Olympics as locations that feature snow have to be in the running to host the games.
With so many factors playing a role in these Games, it only makes sense that the bidding process for each Winter Olympics takes place well in advance.
For example, the 2026 Winter Olympic Games bidding process was concluded in 2019 to finalise which cities would host the games.
The bidding process also features several stages before the final winner is announced. With the 2026 and 2030 Games coming up next, here is the date, country and venue for the spectacles.
The date for the 2026 Winter Olympics has been confirmed and it will take place between 6 and 22 February 2026.
However, some events could be held a day or two earlier, like we have seen in the 2022 Games in Beijing. These are usually the qualifiers for the big events, but the 2026 Games official being held on 6 February.
The country hosting the event will be Italy and this will be an event held in two cities as this was a joint bid.
Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo are the two venues for the 2026 Winter Olympics and they beat another joint bid. That came from the Swedish cities of Stockholm and Are.
There was interest from other counties but Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Turkey and Canada all either withdrew from the running or were not invited for the candidature stage.
This would be the fourth Olympic Games held in Italy and the last one held in Italy was the 2006 Winter Games in Turin.
1960 saw Rome host the Summer Games while Cortina d’Ampezzo held the 1956 Winter Games.
The venues for the games include the San Siro Stadium, PalaItalia Santa Giulia, PalaLido and Piazza del Duomo. All of these venues are located in the Milan Cluster. The other locations and venues are the Mediolanum Forum, which is in the Assago stand-alone venue.
The Valtellina Cluster features the Pista Stelio in Bormio and Mottolino/Sitas-Tagliede/Carosello 3000 in Livigno.
The Cortina d’Ampezzo Cluster features the Olimpia delle Tofane Slope, the South Tyrol Arena in Anthill, the Pista Eugenio Monti and the Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio.
The Val de Fiemme Cluster has three venues. The Stadium del salto in Predazzo, the Lago di Tesero Cross Country Stadium in Tesero and the Ice Rink Pine in Baselga di Piné.
The final location is in Verona, which will host the closing ceremony.
While the process for getting bids is ongoing, there is no confirmed location for the 2030 Winter Olympics as of yet.
The IOC (International Olympic Committee) is expected to confirm the winning bid for the host City in Mumbai, India in 2023.
Currently, there seem to be three strong bids for the games. Canada has Vancouver-Whistler, Japan has Sapporo and there is a joint bid from Spain, Andora and France which features Barcelona-Zaragoza-Pyrenees.
There could be potential bids coming in from Kazakhstan, France (Savoy), Georgia, Ukraine, Germany and the United States too.
