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Fire country as the Olympic Alternative?

Never winter Olympics have been held in the southern hemisphere of the earth. Now Ushuaia is considering, is a small town on the southern tip of Argentina, to apply for 2026. Snow is not lacking in fire country.

Further South is hardly possible: Ushuaia, 3,000 kilometers from Buenos Aires in the direction of the South pole and is located just 150 kilometres from Cape horn removed, is considering jointly with the Argentine capital, an application for the Olympic winter games of 2026. “As a Marketing strategy, the application is good,” says Martin Bianchi, Event coordinator of the local tourism Agency Infuetur. “If you want to host the winter games, but actually, you have to have a very serious mind.”

Argentina had brought up in the past week, a complete surprise to the game. In view of the difficulties in the official candidates, Calgary, Stockholm and Milan, Cortina d’ampezzo, the South Americans could be an Alternative. Initially, it was unclear whether Buenos Aires and Ushuaia, want the games really. Or whether it is more important to put the previous applicant under pressure, to put a little more into it. So far, an application to Argentina was only for the winter games 2030 in the conversation.

The infrastructure would have to be expanded

Also for the next youth Olympic games in 2024, the South Americans are interested in, after the summer Olympic youth games held in October in Buenos Aires. “After this overwhelming success, there can be no doubt that Buenos Aires could be in the future a great city for the Olympic games,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.


Actually, the IOC wants to award the winter games is again reinforced in the traditional winter sport areas in order to keep the costs low. In Ushuaia, however, there’s a lot of work to do. “The infrastructure in the ski resort of Cerro Castor is modern and good, but it would have to be extended,” says Bianchi, was launched in 2006 at the Games in Turin, even in the long run. “The cross-country routes should be strengthened further. Ski jumps or Bobsled, sledge and Skeleton tracks there is not at all.”

Ushuaia is Scandinavia’s comparable

In the case of the athletes, the Region is, however, popular. In the European summer of professionals regularly come to the Training to Cerro Castor, as the last sports delegations from France, Italy, Slovakia and Russia. 2015, an estimated 700 ski instructors to the Congress Interski met in the provincial town at the end of the world. “We have in the fire country, the best scenery and the best snow in South America.

Ushuaia is in Scandinavia is comparable, one of the few places in the world where there is snow practically at sea level,” says Bianchi. “The snow in the fire country is the latitude of snow, no amount of snow. It also provides a large space for the long-run, there is not in the pure mountain areas. In Europe, there’s always less snow.”

Olympic calendar would need to be changed

Can lift the small town of Ushuaia in southern Argentina at the Olympic winter games?

Ushuaia, in the language of the long-extinct indigenous Yamana “The Bay that penetrates the Land to the West”. It is one of the southernmost cities in the world and is situated on latitude 54 – a situation comparable to Kiel or Moscow in the Northern hemisphere. The average temperature in the coldest month of Winter is 1 degree Celsius. This, however, is there in July. Snow is usually from June to October.

The winter games actually are for the first Time in the southern hemisphere, held, would need to be changed to the Olympic calendar. And this is probably the biggest shortcoming of Argentina: The enthusiasm for the Olympic winter games is likely to be with the Fans in the USA and Europe in high summer.

jst/asz (dpa)

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