Key week for the Pyrenean project, with the IOC president in Madrid

The Pyrenean bid for 2030 Winter Games faced an important week, including visit of the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, to Madridwhere you can’t leave without having a rough idea of ​​whether Spain will present a project and on what basis.

The German leader, very satisfied with the concession last Wednesday of the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports to the refugee Olympic teamtravels to Madrid on Wednesday precisely to sign a memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, the Refugee Olympic Foundation and the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), establishing a framework of cooperation to create space in favor of refugee participation in sports.

The document will be signed by Thomas Bachof the president of the COE, Alexander Whiteand of the minister Jose Luis Escrivaand then the first two will visit Alejandro Blanco Sports Center of Getafethe first sports center for refugees in the world, which will serve as an example for the opening of similar centers in other parts of the world.

This is a day where Bach and Blanco will have plenty of time to comment on the difficulties facing the Spanish leader to form a candidacy for the 2030 Winter Games around the Pyrenees, the only large mountain range in Europe that does not host. the white sports date.

Far from moving towards a misunderstanding between the governments of Aragon and Cataloniaconsidering initially that the draft project favors Catalan territory, in recent days it has taken steps backwards, such as calling the referendum to be held on July 24 in the affected Catalan counties.

The decision, sources from the Generalitat indicated, was taken as “respect” for citizens who should vote, considering that they do not have “all possible information” because they do not know how the candidacy will finally be formed.

Alejandro Blanco is “convinced there will be an agreement”, but admitted that the possible candidacy had caught up with other competitors-Sapporo (Japan), Salt Lake City (USA) and Vancouver (Canada)-, which had already been inspected by IOC envoys.

“Twice we have canceled visits to the IOC, having seen other possible candidates. Our strength is the regeneration of the territory and we have had a project with understanding and dialogue. Now we have been left alone, but hopefully in in the next few meetings we will pursue this, “he said at a news conference this week.

Blanco indicated that the project “maintains 54 trials in Aragon and 42 in Catalonia”, so there is no question about the imbalance. Aragonese president Javier Lambán accused him of spreading “lies”.

The Spanish Government has shown their full support for the COE, the only body responsible for submitting the Olympic bid. The Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, commented in the corridors of Congress that he considered it “unthinkable” for Blanco to give his approval to an unbalanced project.

Blanco set May 20 as the last day to have an agreement with Aragon and Catalonia to have time to put together a solid proposal before Thomas Bach’s visit to Madrid, but after that deadline was passed when not reached an agreement, the The next few hours may be decisive so that on Wednesday the president of the IOC will know, somehow, whether or not there will be a Spanish candidate.

The international organization held a meeting on the 20th and subsequently reported that it already had “some solid value proposals” for the 2030 Winter Games, so it is possible the venue election will take place at the agency’s next Session, in May 2023 in Bombay (India).

In his opening speech at the meeting, Thomas Bach mentioned that they have “interested parties from three continents who meet the geographical and climatic conditions to organize the 2030 Games”, a statement that seems to include a European candidacy, which may be Spanish. , along with the Asian from Sapporo and the two North Americans from Vancouver and Salt Lake City.