Zurich no longer candidate to host Winter Olympics

Zurich, which was to have been the centre of the games, has now been dropped from the Olympic bid. Keystone / Arno Balzarini

Zurich is no longer in the running to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, after the organisers of the joint Zurich-Graubünden bid announced they were dropping the city as an official candidate to host the games.

The organisers said on Monday that the popular ski resort of Davos in Graubünden would now be the official candidate town and the bid would be renamed Davos 2010.

The new plan foresees Davos hosting the opening and closing ceremonies, while many of the events would take place in the surrounding region.

The joint bid originally submitted by the two eastern cantons foresaw Zurich as the centre of the games, with Davos and St Moritz also involved.

The changes follow a request from the Swiss Olympic Association, which considered that the proposed sites were too far apart.

Although it is losing out as a candidate city, Zurich will still host ice hockey matches, if the bid is successful.

Davos 2010 faces competition within Switzerland from a rival joint bid put forward by the capital, Bern, in conjunction with Montreux on Lake Geneva. The Swiss Olympic Association will decide in September which of the two bids to support.

The International Olympic Committee will make its choice of host city for the games in 2003.

swissinfo with agencies