Krakow, Poland considers co-hosting the Winter Olympic in 2022 with Slovakia (UPDATE)

When I first got wind of it I must admit to an immediate sense of incredulity. "Really?"
The recently-concluded European football championships is one thing BUT THE OLYMPICS? In Kraków?
I dunno.
Can Poland pull this one off?
Where do you get the funding for something like this?
Hotels and sports venues will need to be built.
With so much that needs yet to be done in Poland, will the people go along?
It's an exciting idea. You've gotta give it to the Poles for thinking big.
Would they even stand a chance of being chosen?

I think they should go for it! They can pull it off without any problems.
Finally build a freeway to Zakopane. There is plenty of hotels in Krakow already, they can also use Student Miasteczko.
People will go along, Poles like to party!!!

Winter Olympics are much smaller event than summer ones.

krakow.gazeta.pl/krakow/1,35798,12936865,Polsko_slowackie_igrzyska_zimowe__Co_trzeba_wybudowac_.html - in pPolish (what needs to be build)

Zakopane tried for 2006 Winter Olympics and Turin won.

Village- we could use Miasteczko studenckie , and build some apartments that would be sold after the event.
New cross-country skiing paths, that are planned but there alvays were not enough money,
Biathlon- we would need to renew one route
Snowboard- we use Jurgowo, 20 km from Zakopane, new
Alpine skiing and freestyle - Thos would have to take place in Slovakia
Hockey - either Sosnowiec/ Katowice or in Slovakia
Figure skating and short track - stadium would be finished by 2014
skating- we would have to build this
curling - stadium for this is going to be build near AWF ( even without Olimpics)
sleighs - most expensive and would have to be build

I completely forgot about all those existing resources like the student dorms.
Maybe it makes sense

They should go for it. Even better, hold it in the Beskidy Slaskie.

Hi! Please let's be serious: the other candidates are Munich, Barcelona, Nice, Oslo and Saint-Moritz (+ Brazow and Lviv) so ....;) The olympic authorities need more than ... students' dorms in Krakow ;). In the western cities applying, infrastructures are top and far much better and usually already existing. The mountains are higher (Alps and Pyrenees in the case of Barcelona) and quality snow is garanteed.

I know one can dream but let's be realistic: Krakow has very little chance.

Are we talking about chances? I don't think anybody actually believes we could win. Just as nobody believed about 2006 , or about Euro 2012 ;)

forgive me, then why even try? Why go through all of this if it's only a pipe dream?

To judge a city's chances based on the quality of its existing infrastructure is to miss the point of the Olympics. Only very rarely do these big sports competitions take place in already-prepared areas; they're given to countries that the Committee have decided need to improve their infrastructure in order to improve their sport. Poland and Ukraine were given Euro 2012 for exactly that reason; their existing sports infrastructure was terrible.

Using the same logic, Poland/Slovakia stand a very high chance of being awarded the Winter Olympics, but it would mean creating easy transport crossing across the mountains. At the moment, it's more than 2 hours to travel the 50km between Zakopane and Chopok, and that's in normal traffic not Olympic traffic, and therefore these two countries have no chance.

Sorry, thats not true. Even the alps have a shortage of snow some years.

We are Poles. If we win something we call it miracle ;P. It doesn't mean we stop trying. And we did host Euro 2012.

I can't find it now but once I saw statistics on major sport tournaments (avg number of fans, infrastructure requirements etc.) and Winter Olympics were far behind Summer or World Cup, more or less on pair with Euro... so I don't see a reason why we wouldn't make it... on the other hand there are controversies over benefits for the host country in case of such events... Personally I think Winter Olympics 2022 in Poland are not a bad idea... Some people are also talking about Summer Olympics in Warsaw 2024... I would have serious doubts in this case...

Using the same logic, Poland/Slovakia stand a very high chance of being awarded the Winter Olympics, but it would mean creating easy transport crossing across the mountains. At the moment, it's more than 2 hours to travel the 50km between Zakopane and Chopok, and that's in normal traffic not Olympic traffic, and therefore these two countries have no chance.

How valid is Richfilth's point regarding mountain traffic?

I have no idea how he comes up with Chopok, it will rather be Banska Bystrica or Poprad.
Which doesnt change the fact that the road(are there even multiple? ;) ) is terrible up there.
And it would be an excellent opportunity to establish some decent links between the countries.

2022 Olympic Winter Games in Krakow?

Would be cool to see Krakow host the 2022 Olympics what do you think?? Does Poland actually have a shot at doing this? And would they be able to pull it off?


olympic.org/news/five-bid-cities-submit-application-files-to-host-2022-olympic-winter-games/227355

No it wouldn't: Poland has far more useful things to spend billions of euros on.


Pretty much none.


Probably, but I really hope that they don't get to try.

Does anybody happen to know whose money is being wasted on this bid? Is it only Krakow's money or is the Polish taxpayer also getting fleeced for this?

probably more than 90% of Polish people do not want Olympics in Poland. I don't know even 1 person who does. only politicians want it because it's their chance to steal even more money and claim it's their success.

Not very cool, since many schools and hospitals are falling down, public sector wages are appalling, old age pensions minimal and any main road not upgraded with EU money dangerous.

But hey, let's build some more stadiums.

Organisation WOG'll be very expensive. We've a lot of other needs for these milions PLN.

I'd say that a lot more than 10% of Poles would love to see the Olympics in Poland, with the majority of those Poles being people who don't pay any taxes anyway.

Hoteliers, taxi drivers and prostitutes, same as anywhere. The sick, the unemployed, the elderly and those in run down social housing (or people desperately trying to get on the waiting list) would very much prefer to watch it on TV from somewhere else.

Being the only country in Europe that didn't bother to show the Paralympics on state TV certainly doesn't help their bid much either.

But dont forget this is 8 years out, plenty of time and maybe the motivation needed to upgrade the surrounding area.


..... Why is that bad, does anyone even watch it when its on hahaaha I dont know anyone who watches that lol

So what? Where is the money going to come from any why should it be wasted on winter Olympic games when there are so many better things to spend it on?

BS- Me and my mom would love to see the olympics in Poland :)


Hmmm, if you are talking about Sochi that from what I remember I did see it on national TV....

Hosting the Olymics is a vanity project, and I think we should avoid it like the plague unless someone has a bloody good proposal to build the host sites as part of (most of) a major development to turn the Tatry into a top-class winter resort area. After winer 2012/13 I'd have said we have the weather ... winter 2013/14, though, raises more doubts!

FFS some more billions to be spent on Olympics, after Euro 2012 everyone I know kept saying about Poland wasting money,maybe 10 years later they'll forget about it and think it's going to be a good decision. Personally I'd never agree.


No Lenka, he's talking about Paralympics not the Olympics.

About London 2012.


That's the phrase I was looking for.

Almaty can afford it easily but is in the middle of nowhere, Oslo has the best infrastructure (plus the cash), Lviv can't afford it and doesn't have the infrastructure and Beijing held the main games although their human rights record has come under much more scrutiny since then.

Perhaps Oslo's the best bet.

If done in the right way though you can make money. Even the London Olympics made money, Vancouver broke ever, China made money, Salt Lake made money, Sochi most def had to of lost money cause of security costs,. So whats wrong with it???

The only negative that I can see if the aftermath of what happens to these buildings, London did a great job unlike that of Athens, Moscow or Beijing, who did not think about the after effects of holding the games. So if Poland were to make it happen the right way I think it could definitely be something great.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_the_Olympic_Games

Referendum in Krakow, on Olympics is on may 25th...

And they overwhelmingly voted against. Krakow has now withdrawn its bid.

So, by the way, have several other cities. Lviv, Bejing and Almaty haven't withdrawn - the last two of those are serious contenders.