By Duncan Mackay

Munich city shot with mountainsJune 6 - A referendum is due be held on November 10 to let the public decide whether Munich should bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.


That is just four days before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) deadline for National Olympic Committees to notify them of whether a city from their country wants to bid. 

The date for the public poll has been chosen by Munich City Council and there is sure to be intense lobbying by those who want the Games and those who do not.

Munich's unsuccessful bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics was overshadowed by a late referendum in the Alpine town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the planned site for the skiing events.

Less than two months before the IOC voted on which city should host the Games, residents there voted in favour of the bid on two petitions with some 58 per cent in favour of hosting the skiing events of the 2018 Games should Munich win the bid in July and 51 against a review of the contracts regarding the Games.

Anti Munich 2018 protestorsAnti-Olympic protesters hampered Munich's bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics

While both votes ultimately came out in favour of the bid, the fact they were held so close to the vote hampered Munich's lobbying efforts. 

Referendums will also be held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the counties of Berchtesgaden and Traunstein, where some events would take place.

Munich City Council said that the plans for the 2018 bid would form the basis for any new bid but have already decided that biathlon and cross-country skiing competitions would this time instead be held in Ruhpolding and the freestyle aerials and halfpipe competitions at the Olympic Park, which was built for the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Ruhpolding, located in southeastern Bavaria, alrady houses a biathlon track and hosted the 1979, 1985, 1996 and 2012 Biathlon World Championships.

If Munich's bid is successful they will become the first city in history to hold both the Summer and Winter Olympics. 

Thomas Bach with Katarina Witt Durban July 6 2011Thomas Bach consoles bid chair Katarina Witt after Munich were beaten by Pyeongchang to host the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics at the IOC Session in Durban in July 2011

By the time the referendum is held it will be known if the campaign by Germany's Thomas Bach, President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), to replace Jacques Rogge as President of the IOC has been successful, a factor which could affect Munich's chances.

While some will claim that having a German in such an influential position will undoubtedly help Munich's campaign, others will insist that the IOC may be reluctant to award an event to Germany so soon after electing Bach.

But City Council officials must first convince the public in Bavaria to back the bid.

A proposed bid from St Moritz and Davos has already had to be scrapped after the public in Switzerland voted against it in March.

There is a referendum scheduled for September 9 to decide whether Oslo should bid with experts claiming that the decision is on a knives edge.

Ukraine look certain to bid while Poland and Slovakia are discussing a joint proposal which, while within the rules of the Olympic Charter, is unliekly to be granted very enthusiastically by the IOC.

A decision on which city will host the Games is due at the IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015. 

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