Barcelona Prepare 2022 Winter Olympics Bid After Madrid Falls Short

Barcelona is preparing a joint bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games after Madrid failed in its bid to host the 2020 Summer Games.

The joint bid would see the Pyrenees mountains used as an alpine venue and the city’s Mayor Xavier Trias has now confirmed that the documents are there for the Spanish Olympic Committee to asses.

Catalonia’s head of sustainability and territorial policy Santi Vila commented: “The Catalan government will be fully behind the bid if it ends up being formalised. We already have a large part of the infrastructures in place.

“We have the experience of Barcelona hosting the world swimming championships this summer that showed you don’t have to spend a lot of money. The transport connection between Barcelona and Puigcerda [in the Pyrenees] needs to be improved and this would provide the sense of urgency to do so.”

The news came just one day after Madrid 2020’s failure at the 125^th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Buenos Aires.

Madrid lost out in the first round of voting after a tiebreaker with Istanbul.

Istanbul eventually lost to Tokyo who were always considered to be the favourites to host the 2020 Games.