Copenhagen’s mayor explores Olympic ambitions during trip to Paris

Copenhagen’s cultural and leisure mayor, Mia Nyegaard, is heading to Paris to gather ideas for hosting a Youth Olympic Games in the Danish capital, with aspirations to eventually bring the Olympics to Copenhagen. Nyegaard emphasizes the potential for the Games to inspire many people and showcase Denmark’s capacity to organize major sports events.

She envisions a sustainable and cost-effective Olympic Games, aiming to create the smallest and most eco-friendly event ever. However, Rasmus Klarskov Storm, head of analysis at the Institute for Sports Analysis, notes that merely promoting sustainability may not be sufficient to convince the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to select Copenhagen as a future host city. He argues that typically, cities that present the most impressive shows and events are favored.

Hans Natorp, chair of the Danish Sports Federation, which acts as Denmark’s Olympic Committee, shares a similar vision of bringing the Olympics to Copenhagen. He believes in the ambition to host a grand event like the Summer Olympics currently underway in Paris. Natorp is convinced that a plan for a sustainable and economical Olympics would not deter the IOC from approval.

Nyegaard dreams of hosting the Olympics in 2040 but admits that the likelihood of this happening is slim. Nonetheless, she believes in the importance of establishing a vision for the future. Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt is cautiously optimistic but considers the timeline proposed by Nyegaard overly ambitious, suggesting that a realistic outlook for an Olympic event in Copenhagen could extend up to 32 years into the future. For any Olympic bid to be viable, the state must provide financial guarantees. Engel-Schmidt underscores the substantial costs involved, stating that organizing an Olympic Games would require a significant financial commitment and cannot be achieved quickly.