MADRID, 24 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), Alejandro Blanco, will meet this Monday (12:00 p.m.) at the headquarters of said organization in Madrid with representatives of the Government, the Generalitat of Catalonia and Aragón to try to advance the candidacy of Barcelona-Pyrenees for the 2030 Winter Olympics.
It will be attended, apart from Alejandro Blanco, by the general secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Víctor Francos; the Minister of the Presidency of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Laura Vilagrá; and the Minister of Education, Culture and Sports of the Government of Aragon, Felipe Faci.
On April 1 COE, Government and Generalitat validated the proposal presented by the Technical Commission of the candidacy to host the 2030 Games and expressed their wish that Aragon “join”.
Said proposal indicated that Catalonia would host the alpine skiing, snowboarding, freestyle, mountain skiing and ice hockey events, and Aragon, cross-country skiing, biathlon, curling and figure and speed skating, while bosbleigh, luge , ski jumping and the Nordic combined would be held in a venue outside of Spain that has not yet been decided.
In addition to agreeing on the distribution of the tests between the stations of Catalonia and Aragon, the exact location of most of the disciplines would have already been decided, taking into account the requirements of the international federations.
Thus, alpine skiing would be held on the La Molina-Masella track (Girona); snowboarding and freestyle, in Baqueira-Beret (Lleida); mountain skiing has not yet been closed but one of the options on the table is that it be hosted by the Boí Taüll track (Lleida), while ice hockey would be played in two pavilions, one that requires a minimum of 10,000 people capacity, which would be the Palau Sant Jordi, and another that requires 6,000, still undecided.
In Aragon, the skating events would take place in Zaragoza, curling at the Jaca ice rink (Huesca), and cross-country skiing and biathlon could be done at the Candanchú station (Huesca).
Instead, the president of Aragon, Javier Lambán, assured on Tuesday that they had not validated the proposal and that his regional government could not accept it “out of dignity.”
“Aragón has acted with loyalty to the COE and to Spain. The 2030 Games are an opportunity that cannot be lost, but it cannot accept the proposal out of dignity and not to lose the ability to compete with the Catalan Pyrenees. The agreement of the president of the COE and the Generalitat of Catalonia seems to me to be an insult to intelligence,” he said at the Europa Press Informative Breakfasts.
However, Lambán explained that this Monday’s meeting at the COE had been requested by Aragón. “Because we are not willing to throw in the towel. We are going to exhaust the avenue of dialogue. We are delighted that the name of Barcelona appears, but that of Zaragoza must also appear,” the head of the Aragonese executive wished.