IOC begins search for 2018 Winter Olympic hosts

The search for the 2018 Winter Olympics hosts officially began yesterday when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched the bidding process. "National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have been invited to submit the name of a city within their...

The search for the 2018 Winter Olympics hosts officially began yesterday when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched the bidding process.

"National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have been invited to submit the name of a city within their jurisdiction as an applicant to host the Games in a little under nine years' time," the IOC said in a statement.

The lakeside town of Annecy in the French Alps, Munich and Pyeongchang in South Korea have said they intend to enter the race while Harbin in north-east China is also expected to bid.

Under the timetable, NOCs must name candidate cities by October 15 and the IOC will confirm acceptance by the end of next June.

In the second stage of the process, candidate cities have to submit detailed descriptions of their projects. The winners will be chosen during an IOC session in Durban in July 2011.

Vancouver will stage next year's Winter Olympics and Sochi in Russia has been chosen to host the 2014 event.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.