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Graubünden says no to hosting 2026 winter Olympics

Residents of the canton of Graubünden on Sunday rejected a plan for the area to host the 2026 winter Olympics.

Published: 13 February 2017 10:33 CET

Graubünden says no to hosting 2026 winter Olympics

The campaign to put Graubünden forward as a candidate was defeated at the polls on Sunday. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP

Over 60 percent of people voted in a referendum against the idea of Graubünden becoming the official Swiss candidate.

The cantonal authorities were asking for approval of a 25 million franc fund for Graubünden’s candidacy.

Only nine million of that would have been paid by the canton itself, the rest being paid by the federal government and the Swiss Olympic committee, reported news agency ATS.

The plan would have seen the Games spread over various locations in the canton as well as in Zurich, Einsiedeln and Engelberg.

Backers said hosting the Games would bring a welcome boost to Graubünden’s economy, which has suffered in recent years under the strong franc and a dip in winter tourism.

It’s the second time in five years that the canton has rejected such a plan. In 2013 a proposal for Graubünden to host the 2022 winter games was also quashed.

According to some, this new proposal came to soon after the last one.

The rejection of Graubünden leaves only one other region in the running as the Swiss candidate for 2026.

Last May the cantons of Vaud and Valais teamed up to launch a joint bid for candidacy that would see the Games spread out across several sites in the two cantons.

Sion was chosen as the host city of the shared bid, though competitions would be held in 14 towns and cities including Lausanne, Champéry, Crans-Montana, Verbier and Zermatt.

Sites further afield, such as St Moritz and Kandersteg, could even be involved.

With only one candidacy now on the table, national Olympic committee Swiss Olympic will spend the next few weeks assessing whether Sion 2026 meets the specified criteria – namely, that hosting the winter Olympics there would have a positive impact on the country, and that it has the capabilities to win its bid for the Games in 2019.

Swiss Olympic will make its decision on March 7th, before final confirmation on April 11th.

Switzerland has twice hosted the Winter Olympic Games, in 1928 and 1948, both times in St Moritz, Graubünden.

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The French Paralympic star who survived war, grief and mutilation

Jean-Baptiste Alaize training in Antibes. All photos: AFP

The 29-year-old French sprinter and long-jumper, who features in Netflix documentary Rising Phoenix released on Wednesday, was just three years old when he lost his right leg.

Not by accident or illness but by the brutal hack of a machete.

A child caught up in the civil war in Burundi in October 1994, he watched as his mother was beheaded.

“For years, every time I closed my eyes, I had flashes. I saw my mother being executed in front of me,” he tells AFP after a training session in Antibes, running his finger across his throat.

The killers left the Tutsi boy for dead. Alaize carries a large scar on his back but he was also slashed across the neck, right arm and right leg by his Hutu neighbours.

He woke up in hospital several days later, alive but missing the lower part of his right leg which had had to be amputated.

“With my mother, we ran, we ran, but we didn't manage to run far,” he says. “We were executed 40 metres from the house.”

A decade later, after coming to France in 1998 and being adopted by a French family, he joined the athletics club in Drôme.

Fitted with a prosthetic limb, he discovered that running gave him his first night without a nightmare since the attack.

“From my first steps on the track, I had the impression that I had to run as long as possible, so as not to be caught,” says Alaize who now lives in Miami.

“I remember like it was yesterday my first night after this session, it was… wow! I had cleared my mind. I was free.

“My energy, my hatred, were focussed on the track. I understood that sport could be my therapy.”

He tried horseback riding and enjoyed it, reaching level six, out of seven, until he pulled the plug.

“It was my horse that let off steam and not me,” he laughs.

The psychologist did not work out either.

“She made me make circles and squares. After a few sessions I told her that I wanted to change my method.”

However he did click with his school physical education teacher, who directed him to athletics after he had anchored his team to a spectacular “comeback” win in a 4×100 metre relay.

His classmates had no idea he was an amputee. He had hidden it to avoid teasing and more racial abuse.

“I was called 'bamboula', dirty negro, the monkey. It was hard.”

Fortunately, the Alaize family, who adopted him after he had spent five years in a Bujumbura orphanage where his father had abandoned him, gave Jean-Baptiste a base and a home that he had not had for years.

“When I arrived here I didn't know it was possible,” he said.

“I had lost that side, to be loved. I still can't understand how racism can set in, when I see my parents who are white, and I am a black child… they loved me like a child.”

His parents, Robert and Daniele, had already adopted a Hutu child from Rwanda, renamed Julien.

John-Baptist was originally called Mugisha. It means “the lucky child” which is not quite how things worked out. His new family name, though, suits him better. Alaize is a pun in French for 'a l'aise' – at ease.

The French disabled sports federation spotted the prodigy, and he began collecting his first trophies, including four junior world titles at long jump, three of them with world records.

“It was starting to change my life and I was happy to represent France,” he says.

He went to the Paralympic Games in London (2012) and Rio (2016), where he finished fifth in the long jump, just five centimetres short of the bronze medal.

Now armed with his state-of-the-art prosthesis, which he nicknamed Bugatti, he was dreaming of taking a step up at Tokyo 2020 and going home to France with a medal but the postponement of the Games has decimated his sponsorships.

“I'm still looking to compete at Tokyo 2021 or 2022 and Paris 2024,” he says.

“If I don't succeed, I will have to turn the page which would be sad.”

He hopes that Rising Phoenix will raise his profile and maybe attract some sponsors.

The documentary's producer Ian Bonhote is in no doubt that Alaize's star is rising.

“He bursts through the screen. His story will resonate,” he says.

“The nine athletes in our documentary all have different backgrounds, but none survived what Jean-Baptiste suffered. His disability was imposed on him in such a savage and violent way.”

Rising Pheonix is available now to view on Netflix.

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