TOKYO, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The northern Japanese city of Sapporo on Tuesday announced the withdrawal of its bid, spanning almost a decade, to host the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The announcement was made by Sapporo Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed last month that the French Alps and U.S. Salt Lake City-Utah were the sole candidates to host the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games.
With the options for the 2038 Games narrowed down to Switzerland, Akimoto said that "we have no choice but to consider starting from a clean slate."
The decision marks the end of Sapporo's nine-year efforts to secure the Winter Olympics, raising questions about the future of the city's involvement in international sporting events.
In November 2014, Sapporo initially declared its candidacy for the 2026 Games under the leadership of the then-mayor Fumio Ueda. However, in September 2018, following a 6.6-magnitude earthquake in Hokkaido, Akimoto, who succeeded Ueda, shifted the bid's focus to the 2030 Games.
The bidding has been facing sluggish support and growing public distrust over the bribery and bid-rigging scandals connected to the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2021, prompting the city to announce the abandonment of its bid for the 2030 Games in October this year.
Having hosted the Games in 1972, Sapporo was once considered the front-runner to host the Winter Olympics for a second time, but according to local media, the IOC shifted its focus to other candidates after the scandals linked to the Tokyo Olympics. ■
