Optimism, concerns as expert panellists question best approach to potential Olympic bid

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If Calgary goes ahead with a bid for the 2026 Winter Games, it’ll do so from a position of advantage.

So says former Canadian Olympic Committee chair Roger Jackson, who also chaired the advisory board for the 1988 Calgary Games.

“The initial reaction from a lot of people is, ‘why are we doing this, we’ve already done it, it’s going to cost too much.’ But that isn’t the answer because there are some really, really good economic and legacy reasons to do it,” said Jackson, who won a gold medal in rowing at the 1964 Tokyo Games.

“There are a lot of new possibilities and new legacies. They need to be explored and we need to see if the value is there for all the efforts and commitment of resource.”

Jackson spoke Tuesday evening at a panel discussion, hosted by the University of Calgary, focused on the best approach for a potential 2026 Olympic bid.

Other panellists were Robert Steadward, the first president of the Paralympic Olympic Committee, 2016 gold medallist wrestler Erica Wiebe, Coun. Druh Farrell, WinSport president and CEO Barry Heck, and Mount Royal professor David Legg, who is involved with the Calgary Bid Exploratory Committee.

If Calgary chooses to bid, it wouldn’t be “building from scratch,” Jackson said. It would be a lot easier to host the Games again given the facilities left over from 1988, but also because of lessons learned from more recent Games such as Vancouver 2010, he said.

Challenges persist, including aging facilities at WinSport, but they’re far from insurmountable, according to Heck.

“We can attack them all,” he said. “The advantage of being able to reuse old facilities is a tremendous leg up for Calgary. For example, our sliding track, it’s served us extremely well. It’s served Calgary, it’s served the country since 1988. Now it’s nearing end of life, it needs a renewal and a refurbishment and we’re looking at doing that, but the cost of that is $20 (million) to 25 million, which has to be done in any event, versus $150 (million) or $200 million for a brand-new one.”

Farrell said she hopes council will remain open-minded and scrutinize the details surrounding a potential bid.

But she said she was skeptical of the International Olympic Committee’s talking points about moving away from corruption and overspending, given Russia’s reinstatement so soon after the Pyeongchang Games and cost overruns that the 2018 host is experiencing.

“The bills are just starting to come in with Korea and it’s almost double what they originally forecasted. They’re going to be living with massive debt for a significant amount of time,” she said. “Right now, the IOC takes the profit. It’s a hugely profitable organization and the risk is on the city. They need to share in both the risk and the reward.”

Farrell said there’s no doubt that Calgary spirit would help make the 2026 Games one to remember, but said the city first needs to answer tough questions about whether a bid should be a priority.

For her council colleagues, she fears that step might have already been skipped.

“Just from what I’m hearing, I suspect that we made a decision emotionally quite some time ago,” she said. “We haven’t consulted with Calgarians yet and we have committed to do that. We have an obligation to ask Calgarians.”