On Monday the International Olympic Committee and Italian ruling class interests decided in an unusual turn that Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo are slated to host a dual-city Winter Olympics in 2026, a fitting end to the most underwhelming Olympic bidding cycle in modern history. City after city are rejecting even the notion of bidding for the Olympics. Referendums against the Olympics are nearing a 100% success rate, and cities around the world are mostly impervious to the false promises of Olympic legacies.
Today, the IOC surprised much of the sporting world when rumors went public about a proposal requiring all potential Olympic host cities to hold a public referendum before the bidding process begins. Of course there should be referendums and democratic mechanisms surrounding all projects of this size and scope.
But they’ll get no congratulations from us. A required public vote should have been the process all along. Why did it take 125 years to arrive at this place? The answer: pressure from communities around the world.
The only reason the IOC is making this historic change towards democracy is to save themselves the embarrassment of having the vote forced upon them. They don’t care about a more peaceful or democratic world; they care about the bottom line.
And, a question for the IOC: is this an admission that LA and Paris should have had a vote? The two cities that received these bids were the only two cities left in the process, and that they were the only two cities who didn’t have threats of a referendum for 2024 and 2028 is not a coincidence.
If the IOC forces a vote, cities will not want to host them anymore, save for the places where elections are easy to influence and democracy is already in short supply. So the IOC is either underestimating democracy or tacitly admitting they prefer to work with undemocratic cities and nation states.
This much is abundantly clear; LA should have had a vote on the 2028 Olympic bid. And we still demand one.
We stand in solidarity with anyone fighting and challenging Olympic corruption in Italy, Sweden, and beyond. We refuse to accept the IOC’s bogus claim that the Olympics are self-reforming to become more “safe,” “sustainable,” “green,” “cost-effective,” or even “democratic.”
#NOlympicsAnywhere