There remain four candidates in the race so far but doubts hang over all of them.

It is expected that three of the bidders - the joint Italian bid featuring Milan and Cortina D’Ampezzo, Calgary in Canada and Sweden's capital Stockholm - will be put through automatically to the next stage following an IOC Working Group Report presented by Executive Board member Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Doubts, though, remain over the fourth candidate Erzurum in Turkey. 

The city hosted a successful Winter Universiade in 2011 and 2017 European Youth Winter Olympic Festival but the current political climate in Turkey appears to be a problem.

There also remains a perception that it could be a security risk, even though Erzurum is located more than 800 kilometres from the Syria border.

It appears to suffer too from lack of support from the Turkish Olympic Committee with its President and IOC Executive Board member Uğur Erdener turning down several opportunities to promote it.

A proposal to hold sliding events in Sochi at a venue built for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games may also prove to be controversial following the Russian doping scandal. 

Erzurum may survive, however, because doubts also hang over the other three candidates. 

The Milan-Cortina D’Ampezzo bid only was only officially confirmed by the Italian National Olympic Committee yesterday following the decision of Turin, which hosted the 2006 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, to drop out.

The Italian Government, though, have refused to financially underwrite the bid. 

Stockholm, meanwhile, which hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1912, continues to lack support from either the Swedish Government or City Council. 

Sweden is currently facing political deadlock following last month's elections which delivered a hung Parliament with the centre-left bloc headed by the Social Democrats on 144 seats, and the four-party Alliance on 145 seats.

Earlier today, newly elected Speaker Andreas Norlén asked the leader of the Alliance bloc, Ulf Kristersson, to form a Government but backing an Olympic bid is expected to be low on the list of priorities of whoever takes over. 

Calgary, host of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games, is seen as a solid candidate but faces a local plebiscite on November 13 which could torpedo its bid.

Referendums in Sion in Switzerland and Innsbruck in Austria have already led to those cities withdrawing their bids.

In addition, Sapporo in Japan - considered by many as a potential safe host should others falter - withdrew last month following a magnitude 6.7 earthquake which struck 70 miles south of the city on the island of Hokkaido,

They claimed they wanted to concentrate instead on bidding for the 2030 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

A decision on which candidates will progress to the next stage is expected to be taken on the second day of the meeting tomorrow, being held to coincide with the Winter Youth Olympic Games, but may not be announced until next Monday (October 8) - the opening day of the IOC Session.

For those bids put through, the next milestone is set to be the submission of the Candidature File of January 11.