The Generalitat is reluctant to bury the Olympic project to host the Winter Olympics, but announced this Wednesday that it will freeze its technical office. The Catalan government has transferred former skier Mònica Bosch, coordinator of the bid in Catalonia, to the cabinet of the department of the presidency to “advise” adviser Laura Vilagrà on “overarching projects” such as America’s Cup sailing. in the absence of advances of an Olympic solo project. However, the spokeswoman for the executive, Patrícia Plaja, actively rejected the end of the Olympic option: “The government continues to rely solely on the candidacy because the mayors have asked for it. We hope to get this office back up and running sooner rather than later.”
The token movement driven by Ser Catalunya highlights the inability of the Bosch-led and solely formed office to offer a real alternative after the failure of the joint candidacy of Catalonia and Aragon. The Spanish Olympic Committee announced in June that it was abandoning the 2030 option due to a lack of understanding between the two communities, and the Catalan government decided to maintain its commitment by unveiling a single project weeks later to either accept the 2030 appointment or to be reached in 2034. The office continued to operate during this period, although Generalitat sources claim they received no response from the COE. Now that their functions have been reduced, the Generalitat is transferring Bosch, the former president of the Catalan Winter Sports Federation, as adviser to Councilwoman Laura Vilagrà.
The government’s relationship with the Winter Games goes back a long way. The IOC endorsed the technical capacity of a Catalan candidacy in 2018, but the central government persuaded the COE for Aragon to take a leading role in the project. Pedro Sánchez defended a candidacy in 2021 “on an equal footing” and Aragon President Javier Lambán stuck to those words to call for more exposure from the Aragon valleys. The COE and Catalonia refused to amend an initial agreement with Aragon’s technical team and negotiations collapsed due to political interference, despite the belief that the IOC viewed the candidacy “with very good eyes”, according to all parties involved. .,
Now some members of the government harbor minimal hope. They fantasize that the rest of the cities’ restrictions (Salt Lake, Sapporo and Vancouver) will prompt the IOC to knock on the COE’s door again, as it did with the 2026 appointment. So Barcelona was late for the Olympic race, but the Committee International saw this as a real alternative if the other interested cities didn’t make a decisive step forward. “Vancouver (Canada) does not seem to be moving forward and Sapporo (Japan) is suspected of the corruption cases emerging from the 2020 Games,” says a voice involved in the numerous negotiations that took place between Catalonia last summer , Aragon, the Spanish and International Committee.
Bosch’s retention in the structure of the Catalan executive corresponds precisely to these hopes, with the idea of reactivating the post if necessary. “The office has not been closed, but it is not operational,” stressed Plaja, noting that this “is not a cost to the Generalitat”. “Mònica Bosch works in the Councilor’s Office and continues transversal projects related to the world of sport, such as the America’s Cup of Sailing, and also promotes snow sports and aspects of the Olympic culture, which is very rooted in Catalonia.” .
The COE, the only valid interlocutor for the IOC, sees no possibility of reaching 2030 anyway and has ruled out a candidacy for 2034 in the short term.
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