Time for an Olympic odyssey, as seven cities have expressed interest in hosting the 2026 Winter Games. The bids coming from Calgary, the Austrian city of Graz, Swedish capital Stockholm, Sion in Switzerland, Turkey's Erzurum, Japan's Sapporo and an Italian joint bid involving Cortina d'Ampezzo, Milan and Turin.

There is considerable Olympic experience in the field, as Calgary hosted the 1988 Winter Games and Sapporo staged the 1972 edition. Cortina is also a former host, organizing the 1956 Winter Game, and Turin did so 2006. It should also be noted Stockholm held the Summer Games previously, and if successful, would join Beijing as the only cities to host both the Summer and Winter Games. The cities will now enter a dialogue stage until October when the IOC will invite an unspecified number to take part in the one-year candidature phase. The IOC has overhauled the bidding process for Games after a sharp slump in interest from potential hosts in recent years, cutting costs for bid cities and slashing the campaign time in half. It will elect the winning 2026 bid at its session in Milan in September, 2019.