Nationalistic chest-beating events inflict big bills, corruption and disruption on increasingly unwilling taxpayers

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The big appeal for me of the Winter Olympics is the biathlon. That combination of cross-country skiing and riflery is a civilian adaptation of Scandinavian military training that needs only the addition of beer to fully evoke my old memories of cold-weather shenanigans in the high country of northern Arizona. But indulging my nostalgia is an expensive endeavour that dwindling ranks of taxpayers around the world are willing to shoulder. While the Olympic Games make for occasionally interesting spectacles, they’re primarily exercises in expensive nationalistic chest-beating that interest fewer potential hosts and spectators than in the past.

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In 2019, when the setting for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games was being decided, the Associated Press reported that, for the second time in a row, there were only two contenders for the dubious honour of playing host. Four years earlier, Beijing, China had won the nod over Almaty, Kazakhstan, for the 2022 games after other potential candidates dropped out. For 2026, it came down to Milan-Cortina and Stockholm-Are once voters in Switzerland, Austria, and Calgary rejected proposals to bid for the games. Even the Italian and Swedish bids were near things. “Both 2026 candidates likely would have dropped out of previous contests that had stricter rules and deadlines,” noted the AP’s Graham Dunbar.

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