But Lindberg, who represented Stockholm 2022 at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Orientation Seminar in Lausanne last month, claimed this was not true.

Having been involved in Coordination Commissions for the Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014 Games before chairing the one for Pyeongchang 2018, she should know what it takes to host the Games.

"We had a good concept and were planning to hold most of the events in the capital city," she told insidethegames here, where she has been attending the Olympic Council of Asia General Assembly.

"But apparently we were not good enough and couldn't get the political party to accept the budget, because it was so much lower than the other ones they thought something was wrong.

"And it was not because we already had a lot of the venues ready."

Gunilla Lindberg dismissed the fears over cost and venues which led to yesterday's withdrawal ©AFP/Getty Images


Lindberg, who is a member of the International Olympic Committee's ruling Executive Board, as well as secretary general of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), claimed Sweden would bid again, despite this disappointment.

"We will learn and will still have other Olympic dreams," she told insidethegames. 

"We had the [Summer] Games in 1912 but that was a long time ago now.

"But we are a big sporting county - having participated in all the Games since the start - and we will come back in the future."

Gunilla Lindberg will continue to fight for Stockholm's right to host another Olympic Games for the first time since 1912, she has claimed ©Popperfoto/Getty Images


Lindberg admitted, with Almaty and Beijing among the five remaining 2022 candidate cities, the bidding balance of power may be tilting away from Europe. 

"It is a shift and you can also relate this to the economic situation," she said.

"There are big, big resources in Asia which maybe we don't have in Europe any more."

She claimed measures should be taken to address this discrepancy and reduce the scale of Games.

"For the future we might also consider the magnitude of the Games and perhaps make it more downsize - not for numbers of athletes or quality of competitions - but maybe we can use existing venues, for example," she said.

"I think this is also something IOC President [Thomas] Bach has discussed and I think its important for the whole world because we went the Games spread around."

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