Pending a vote. The future of the Winter Olympic bid Pyrenees-Barcelona 2030 it would go through a participatory process that would have to take place over the next year. The news was advanced by Minister of the Presidency Laura Vilagrà in Vielha (Vall d’Aran) and confirmed to MD the general secretariat of l’Esport i de l’Activitat Física, Anna Caula. It remains to define the question and the date of the popular consultation, while the Olympic project continues to be explained to the regions of Pirineo. A new context to which we must add the input of Aragon, after which the technical visit of the consultant to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Gilbert Felli to the Aragonese facilities that should host the Olympic events.
Last July the President of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) Alejandro Blanco has already delivered to the IOC the letter of intent of Pyrenees-Barcelona within the framework of Tokyo Olympics, making the candidacy official. After Tokyo, the next step was to start the workshops with the parties involved, which have not started. “I’m still waiting for an interview with him President of the Generalitat Pere Aragonès and until then we cannot start with the work meetings or with the IOC technical inspections ”, he assures MD Blanco. Felli, who already gave the OK to the Catalan facilities, has his suitcase ready and is only awaiting the date on which he must travel to Aragon. A delay that worries Blanco: “The candidacy is in a hurry, the technical part has to be finished in February. After the Beijing Olympics we have to take out all the artillery. In these last ten years we have achieved what seemed impossible. I remain firm in creating the best technical candidacy ”.
The people of the Pyrenees, where the Games can have a transformative impact, must give their opinion about the development they want
Meanwhile, the need for a participatory process has been confirmed for the candidacy to prosper, at least in the Catalan territory. “This is our commitment and this is how it was voted in the Parliament of Catalonia. It was part of one of the agreements that the future of the Games would go through a referendum where the main activity will take place ”, he explains to MD Anna Caula. “The consultation would be limited to the regions with the greatest affectation. The people who live there must have their say about the development they want and where the Games can have a transformative impact. Barcelona is very used to hosting top-level events ”.
The definition of the question is in the final phase and the date cannot be overdue. The COI establishes that the deadline for the definitive proposal must be seven years before the realization of the Games themselves, that is, in 2023, but the highest Olympic body warned that if they consider that there is already a ‘mature’ candidacy in 2022 they could choose it after Beijing.
The candidacy is in a hurry. The technical part has to be finished in February
For its part, Caula ensures that the Government supports the Games “as long as they are not the end of a project, but one more piece of a chain of transformation and stimulation for the territory. It has to be the Games of the development of the Pyrenees”. And, given the nervousness that can settle in certain sectors after the latest news, Caula asks for calm. “There are two more interested cities and you have to be patient. Our goal is to have a solid project that the territory makes its own, feminist and sustainable ”.
Face Pyrenees-Barcelona the final stretch of his proposal – “now comes the moment of truth”, says Blanco -, waiting to specify the fit of Aragon, the question and date of the popular consultation. Sapporo (Japan) and Salt Lake City (United States) they continue to be the main rivals of the Catalan-Aragonese candidacy.
“The sports concept, the only priority”
In mid-September, Aragon got back on the train for the Pirineus-Barcelona winter Olympic bid, after two months before he had removed himself from it due to “lack of equality”. The Aragonese president, Javier Lambán, highlighted after the meeting with the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, and the president of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), Alejandro Blanco, that it was “ a formidable opportunity to promote the brand of Aragon, Catalonia and Spain, thanks to the organization of the COE ”. Precisely, the president of the COE, Alejandro Blanco remarks to MD that – while waiting to confirm the visit to the Aragonese facilities of Gilbert Felli, technical consultant of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) -, “Aragón is calm. What we have to do is build a technical candidacy that is unquestionable, in which the only priority is the sports concept. This has to be the candidacy of understanding, dialogue and respect “
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