JOC and Sapporo City announce to drop bid for 2030 Winter Games

Japan's Sapporo and the Japanese Olympic Committee have officially abandoned their bid to host the 2030 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in the city in Hokkaido Prefecture, northern Japan. Sapporo's mayor, Akimoto Katsuhiro, and Japanese Olympic Committee President Yamashita Yasuhiro announced the decision on Wednesday.

Yamashita revealed that the committee and the city agreed to terminate bidding activities for the 2030 Games after considering the current situation.  They will instead discuss the possibility of hosting the Games in 2034 or later.

Yamashita said he proposed the change to the mayor earlier this month, citing the influence of corruption and bid-rigging scandals linked to the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021. Sapporo was one of the three cities that made an initial bid for the Games along with Salt Lake City in the US and Canada's Vancouver.