The Mayor of Kamloops wants to see an Olympic sporting event held in the City should a B.C. bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics move forward.
Ken Christian says he wants the Tournament Capital of Canada to be “more than a gateway to Sun Peaks” which has so far been tapped to host freestyle skiing and snowboarding events that were held at Cypress Mountain in 2010.
“There are a lot of events that Kamloops is tailored to host,” Christian told NL News.
“We’ve done the World Curling Championships twice in our recent history [in 1998], and I think that we could do that equally as well as Vancouver. The other one that we have done is women’s hockey [in 2016].”
Kamloops is also set to host the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in February and the 2023 Memorial Cup. It was also the host for the 1996 and 2014 Briers and last hosted the Memorial Cup in 1995. More recently, the City hosted the 2022 Canada 55 Plus Games.
Christian says Kamloops has the facilities to be able to host an Olympic event, and he’s hoping the Canadian Olympic Committee looks into that possibility.
As it stands though, the City is only slated to host media and volunteers for the duration of the games in 2030, which are scheduled to be held from Feb. 8 to Feb. 24, 2030 with the Paralympics to follow from Feb. 28 to March 20, 2030.
“We’ve made the investments [into our facilities] and we hope that those would be up for consideration at least,” Christian added. “These events now are becoming more a television marketing kind of exercise, so I think we have broadcast capacity here that would be able to meet the needs of the Olympic committee.”
“Early indications are that they don’t want to split up those but I think the precedent is set by splitting up snowboarding and bringing it here because of snow issues at Cypress. I’m thinking that they could make this even sweeter for Kamloops.”
In August, City Council voted in favour of sending a letter of support to the Canadian Olympic Committee as it continues to work on putting a bid together for the 2030 Winter Olympics.
Mary Conibear with the COC’s Feasibility Team told City Council that a letter of support does not mean that Kamloops is committing to picking up the costs related to the bid, at least not yet.
“No one is going to commit to actually bidding until they understand what it means for their community,” she said.
“It really is a support in principal. More or less, its we like the opportunity and we think its really extremely positive and there is potential and we support in principal pending conversations around what it means for our community.”
Targeted dialogue with the International Olympic Committee isn’t set to begin until December, with a host expected to be chosen next year.
The plans will also need provincial and federal government approvals with the impact on communities – including costs – to be discussed in the months ahead, before the bid is completed in early 2023.
Medals Plaza for Kamloops ‘still on the table’
Even if Kamloops doesn’t host an Olympic event, it is possible that a medals plaza could be built in the City.
That is according to Mary Conibear with the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Feasibility Team, who was addressing City Council on Aug. 30.
“We wanted to make sure following proper protocol that we had the nations fully engaged, and so now with Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc, with the three bands up in Sun Peaks, we can start having conversations about where the medals plaza might be,” Conibear said.
As for the whether the Olympic rings will be coming to Kamloops, Conibear says that is a discussion to be had with the IOC.
“It is still on the table,” she added. “The rings themselves is a discussion with the IOC so we’ll wait until the targeted dialogue aspect.”