Could New Zealand Ever Host the #Olympics? #Sochi2014

Could we see scenes like this in little old New Zealand?

The Winter Olympics is set to come to a close this weekend and it looks like it will pass by without a hitch - to the relief of the Russian officials after all the money spent, the preparation and media attention about gay rights, etc. in the buildup to the games.

It has been a pretty successful Olympics and has certainly given the Black Sea resort of Sochi and the new prosperous Russia the publicity they'd planned for.

Sochi's Olympic Village

However, the IOC have expressed concern at the rising cost of hosting the Olympics in recent times - the Sochi games are the most expensive games ever in history and if the current trend continues, the Olympics will be well out of the reach of even the likes of the USA and European nations who have just come out of a major recession.

The IOC is looking at trimming back the fat of the Olympics and bringing it back to its roots so that the Olympics don't end up becoming a toy for the ultra-rich. This could mean supporting more sustainable facilities in host cities, i.e. easily dismantled structures as in London for the summer games.

It means that the likes of New Zealand could once again be in a position to make a bid to host the Olympics without having to carry the debt for the next 50 years, i.e. Montreal.

Montreal's Olympic Stadium is still being waiting to be paid off today 

Even so, the summer Olympics probably will still be out of reach of New Zealand's - unlike Sydney, Auckland probably won't quite be able to get away with hosting it in September as the weather may still be cold and wintry and the large portfolio of sports for the summer games means that it will very well be too expensive for Auckland to host the summer games sustainably.

However, the winter Olympics with its much smaller list of events - and its obvious requirement for some mountains with lots of snow - could be one that New Zealand could host.

Furthermore, no nation in the Southern Hemisphere has yet hosted the Winter Olympics and in this day of age where the football World Cup has been held at least once in every continent and sport has become so global, the time will surely come - possibly in the next 10 years - where the IOC will eventually want to decide to make history and select a Southern Hemisphere country to host the Winter Olympics.

Australia and New Zealand are the most likely candidates in that regard and it must be said that New Zealand surely hold the edge in that race with a booming winter sports industry in the South Island - many European athletes train in their off-season in Queenstown and Wanaka.

Could Queenstown host the Winter Olympics - Lake Placid in New York was much smaller..

However, it's quite unthinkable that Queenstown could host the Olympics on its own - it would be the smallest town to host the Olympics since Lake Placid in New York, but given the trend of the Olympics nowadays, some events could be held in venues all over New Zealand - ice hockey and figure skating could be held in Christchurch or even Auckland or Wellington.

Could Auckland's Vector Arena host the ice hockey final?

If New Zealand were to host an Olympics, it would most certainly have to be a country wide effort just as it was with the Rugby World Cup in 2011 - which it did to great effect. New Zealand's population would still be much smaller than the population of each of the summer Olympics' three most recent host cities. However, the compact nature of the country plus air travel means it is doable for athletes, media and spectators to travel around the country to follow the games - remember the mountains over Sochi are a bit further from the village, and Whistler was a two hour drive from Vancouver, so the flight time between Christchurch or Auckland and Queenstown is about par.

All fanciful thoughts perhaps but imagine if Queenstown were to host the Winter Olympics - this could be how it could look.

Queenstown Olympic Village – 

Opening and closing ceremony, curling, speed skating, luge, skeleton, bobsleigh

Mount Hutt – Nordic combined

Remarkables – Cross-country skiing, biathlon

Coronet Peak – Alpine skiing

Treble Cone – Free-style skiing

Cardrona - Snowboarding

Auckland – Ice hockey, figure skating (Vector Arena)

Wellington – Ice hockey (new indoor stadium)

Christchurch – Ice hockey (CBS Canterbury Arena)

Dunedin – Ice hockey (Forsyth Barr Stadium)