The SwissTech Convention Centre will host the 2019 IOC Session ©SwissTech

Bidders for the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games are facing one of the shortest candidature phases in history after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed its Session next year will be held in Lausanne in June.

The Olympic Capital has replaced Milan as the venue for the 2019 Session, where the hosts of the 2026 Games will be announced, following the Session formally approving a joint bid involving the Italian city and Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Calgary and Stockholm were also given the green light to continue by the Session.

The event is set to be staged at the SwissTech Convention Centre.

June 23 is expected to be the date when the host city is chosen. 

The facility hosted the IOC Extraordinary Session in 2017, where it was officially approved the joint awarding of the 2024 and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games to Paris and Los Angeles respectively.

It also hosted the annual SportAccord International Convention in 2016.

This will be 12th occasion the IOC has staged its Session in the Swiss city, which also hosted in 1913, 1919, 1929, 1946, 1975, 1984, 1986, 1993, 1997 and 1999.

Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo was approved as a candidate for the Games on the same day Italian National Olympic Committee head Giovanni Malagò was made an IOC member ©IOC
Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo was approved as a candidate for the Games on the same day Italian National Olympic Committee head Giovanni Malagò was made an IOC member ©IOC

The three cities have just eight months to fully campaign to host the Games as next year's Session is scheduled to be held around June 23.

The date brings the announcement of the successful bidder for the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics forward by three months as Milan had planned to hold the Session in September.

Milan has lost the hosting rights for the Session as IOC rules stipulate that an election cannot take place in one of the bidding nations.

The IOC claim the shortened window will reduce costs for the bidding cities, who now have just two major events to present their campaigns at - November's Association of National Olympic Committees General Assembly in Tokyo and the SportAccord Summit in Gold Coast next May.

"We had talks with the different candidate cities - we were from the very beginning of the opinion that shortening this period is another opportunity to cut costs of the bidding procedure and to save money for the candidature committee and all the candidature committees then agreed with this shortening of this period," IOC President Thomas Bach said.

The IOC is also expected to use the occasion to showcase its new CHF200 million (£159 million/$207 million/€181 million) headquarters, which is due to be competed next year.