Could Vancouver become a permanent Winter Olympics host city?

Cities being floated as theoretical regular hosts include Salt Lake City and Vancouver in North America, Pyeongchang in Asia and places like Switzerland and Italy in Europe. 

Could Vancouver become one of a select few permanent homes to an Olympic podium?

It’s an idea that’s gained currency in recent days, amid word the International Olympic Committee is considering teeing up a rotating list of permanent host cities amid a lack of volunteers to host the winter games.

Cities being floated as theoretical regular hosts include Salt Lake City and Vancouver in North America, Pyeongchang in Asia and places like Switzerland, Italy and Scandinavia in Europe.

Robert Livingstone, a producer and journalist with Gamesbids.com, said the International Olympic Committee is facing cities concerned about the economic and political fallout of hosting the games, along with the potential that climate change could remove some traditional winter cities from the map.

After last year’s Beijing Games were held almost entirely on artificial snow, the Milan-Cortina Games in 2026 will be held across a wide swath of northern Italy.

“So they’re looking for some confidence they’re going to have cities going foreword, so that’s why they suggested this permanent rotation, hoping that they won’t have to keep going through a bid process, looking for new cities and they will be able to have confidence they can host the winter games for decades to come,” Livingstone said.

Livingstone said Vancouver could fit well with the model because after hosting the 2010 games, it already has most of the venues and infrastructure it would need.

Vancouver had been seen as a contender to host the upcoming 2030 games, with a bid spearheaded by local Indigenous nations and backed by the region’s municipalities, but the province has said it will not support the proposal.