The 2026 Winter Olympics may seem a long way off, but 2019 certainly isn’t and that’s why kicking around the idea of Bow Valley venues once again seeing Olympians in action is not a bad idea.
The 1988 Games, as it turned out, really put Canmore on the map as host of nordic events – with both good and bad consequences, depending on your point of view.
And so, with Calgary throwing $5 million dollars into investigating another Olympics bid, it makes sense for Canmore, and possibly Banff, to do some investigating as well. With 2019 the year when the 2026 host city will be announced, time is already pretty much of the essence.
As to the local front, though, on one hand, many Canmorites, particularly those who volunteered in 1988, would no doubt find it exciting to see the town again ablaze with Olympics fever.
On the other hand, Canmore as a town was irrevocably changed through its Olympics experience. Post 1988, what was once a rather sleepy former coal mining town was suddenly in big demand as a second home destination by those who were introduced to the beauty and varied recreational opportunities the area boasts, via those same Olympics.
Depending on which side of a real estate boom you fall on, that was a very good or very bad situation and one that changed the nature of the town forever.
Also on the bright side, Canmore remains home to the national cross-country and biathlon teams, a side effect of the Olympics experience.
In the big picture, it makes sense that Calgary and Canmore, which still have quality venues in place after the ’88 Games, should host once again. Being that it seems the Olympics have become as much a competition about which host city can spend the most money on hosting the Games, re-visiting sites with venues in place makes economic sense.
What nobody would want to see is a situation such as the disrepair China’s venues have fallen into since it hosted a summer event.
There is no denying it costs billions to host an Olympics-sized event, however, even the Winter Games, which tend to be a more compact competition as fewer countries compete. Taxpayers, of course, will inevitably end up being on the hook for a portion of the funding.
At this time it’s estimated, for example, that Russia’s hosting of the Winter Olympics ran to the tune of about (still disputed) $50 billion.
Yikes.
Again, though, it seems part of the problem is competition among host nations to ensure each opening and closing ceremonies, for example, is the largest, most grand, most expensive spectacle ever. And the compulsion to outspend all others seems an intrinsic value in the bid process.
Then there is the whole issue, now seemingly a component of every Olympics, of the rights of citizens being trampled in the fervour to host, of homeowners illegally renting their homes for big dollars during the Games, of locals coming to despise the hosting as their hometown is turned into a two-week Olympics circus.
Still, if a solid, realistic budget could be set, and rigidly adhered to, and if the best interests of citizens would be embraced, a Calgary Olympics, with Canmore and possibly Kananaskis, maybe Banff, involved, could be billed as The Sensible Games and set a precedent of its own.
