The IOC Evaluation Commission has already flown or driven 1,650 kilometres looking at venues since arriving in the Swedish capital on Monday (March 11).

The downhill skiing venue in Åre - which the Commission visited on Tuesday (March 12) - is a 600km flight away while today's journey here was a round trip of more than 500km. 

The IOC Evaluation Commission is not even planning to visit the proposed venue for the sliding facilities located in Sigulda, nearly 700km away over the Baltic Sea in Latvia. 

The campaign by the IOC for cities to utilise existing facilities, rather than building expensive new ones just for the Olympics, is behind the decision to use so many venues outside Stockholm.

The only rival to Stockholm Åre 2026 is Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, two cities located far apart in an attempt to make sure existing facilities are fully used, although the distances to be travelled in Italy is less than in Sweden. 

The new two-city concept is a key part of Agenda 2020, the reform package launched in December 2014 and which is supposed to put the emphasis on sustainability and efficiency.

"It is indeed a challenge, but it is a also an occasion for me and for my team to get a first hand look of the venues and the prospective venues - it's a big opportunity for us to learn about the bid and to understand the vision and personally I've very happy to see that our direction of sustainability and legacy are a very strong part of the bid," Octavian Morariu, chair of the IOC Evaluation Commission, said here today. 

"May I recall we've had this challenge of this in the past, in Torino [2006] we had them in Vancouver [2010], and finally those Games were great so I think this is really not a big issue.

"Also, in every city are existing venues which is very, very important and I think this is also a great asset to the Games.

"I think we all need to adapt to this in the future."

If Stockholm Åre 2026 is awarded the Olympic Games by the IOC at its Session in Lausanne on June 24, then they will have a total of four Athletes' Villages.

One in Stockholm, another in Åre, a third here in Falun and finally one in Sigulda. 

The fear is that having the athletes spread over such a vast geographical area will kill the uniqueness of the Olympics. 

Christophe Dubi, the executive director of the Olympic Games for the IOC, however, defended the model. 

"If you take an Athletes' Commission, every Athlete Commission, they will tell you what we want is to be as close as possible to the venues," he said. 

"And in the end, this is what matters, right?

"It's the athletes.

"You take Sochi [2014], we had three Villages. 

"No-one complained about the lack of atmosphere, on the contrary this was from an athletes' standpoint a great experience. 

"And what you will see here is being in Åre, being here in Falun, or Stockholm, you have the athletes close by. 

"And that's what really, really matters."