# Shouldn't Summer and Winter Olympics both be held at cold-climate cities? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 25, 2017, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-summer-and-winter-olympics-both-be-held-at-cold-climate-cities/780721 "2017-02-25T07:33:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-summer-and-winter-olympics-both-be-held-at-cold-climate-cities/780721/1 "2017-02-25T07:33:56Z")
It seems that, from a climate and temperature perspective, that it would be best to host the Summer and Winter Olympic Games at relatively northern, cold-climate, cities. The Winter Olympics, of course, by their nature have to be in a frigid climate, but in the hot summer, cities in the northern US, or Canada, or Scandinavia, etc., would afford a cooler temperature for events like the outdoors marathon. Of course, hot-weather cities like Los Angeles have successfully done summer Olympics before, but it just seems that Seattle or Vancouver, etc., could have done well too with lower temperatures. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-summer-and-winter-olympics-both-be-held-at-cold-climate-cities/780721/2 "2017-02-25T08:24:57Z")
LA isn’t a hot weather city, valleys excepted and its low humidity. But otherwise I agree with your premise. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-summer-and-winter-olympics-both-be-held-at-cold-climate-cities/780721/3 "2017-02-25T14:17:28Z")
It’s about bribes, not weather. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-summer-and-winter-olympics-both-be-held-at-cold-climate-cities/780721/4 "2017-02-26T04:01:36Z")
Sydney and Johannesburg need not apply. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-summer-and-winter-olympics-both-be-held-at-cold-climate-cities/780721/5 "2017-02-26T04:53:52Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > Sydney and Johannesburg need not apply. I think the OP’s premise is that non-Western cities need not apply. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-summer-and-winter-olympics-both-be-held-at-cold-climate-cities/780721/6 "2017-03-22T01:35:00Z")
The Tokyo games are in winter, so that’s a start. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-summer-and-winter-olympics-both-be-held-at-cold-climate-cities/780721/7 "2017-03-22T13:02:39Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It’s about bribes, not weather. Goddamit, I was going to say this, only in a nicer way. From a _banking_ perspective, it makes the most sense to hold the Olympics in whatever cities to which they are awarded.\* \*and even more so for the World Cup. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-summer-and-winter-olympics-both-be-held-at-cold-climate-cities/780721/8 "2017-03-22T15:47:38Z")
> [@Cugel](#): > > The Tokyo games are in winter, so that’s a start. The Tokyo games are scheduled for July 24 through 9 August. That’s right in the middle of summer. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-summer-and-winter-olympics-both-be-held-at-cold-climate-cities/780721/9 "2017-03-22T17:13:31Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > Sydney and Johannesburg need not apply. Canberra and Cape Town can be quite cool in winter. Which is really Summer, by Olympic time. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-summer-and-winter-olympics-both-be-held-at-cold-climate-cities/780721/10 "2017-03-22T19:39:31Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > The Winter Olympics, of course, by their nature have to be in a frigid climate, but in the hot summer, cities in the northern US, or Canada, or Scandinavia, etc., would afford a cooler temperature for events like the outdoors marathon. As an aside, it’s not exactly true that the Winter Games have to be held in a “Frigid” place, as evidenced by the fact that a number of Winter Games have, in fact, been held in places with mild winters - Vancouver, Squaw Valley, Sochi, Albertville, etc. The next Winter Games are in Pyeongchang, which isn’t very cold, and the one after that is in, weirdly, Beijing, also not very cold. What’s critically important is that you have a place people can ski. You can make snow with machines; its not really important that it be super cold. And, of course, many events are held indoors. But you do need a mountain. There’s no getting around that. It would be much easier to hold a Winter Games in Sacramento, which is not too far from mountains, than in Winnipeg, which is very cold but nowhere near good skiing. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-summer-and-winter-olympics-both-be-held-at-cold-climate-cities/780721/11 "2017-03-23T02:24:43Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > Canberra and Cape Town can be quite cool in winter. Which is really Summer, by Olympic time. Also not northern cities and therefore disqualified by the OP. ---
**Author:** ![NorthernStar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c77e96/32.png) [@NorthernStar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NorthernStar)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shouldnt-summer-and-winter-olympics-both-be-held-at-cold-climate-cities/780721/12 "2017-03-23T14:14:49Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > What’s critically important is that you have a place people can ski. You can make snow with machines; its not really important that it be super cold. As a spectator though, I would infinitely prefer a “winter wonderland” a la Lillehammer’94 over a warm-weather setting where skiers compete against the backdrop of grey, snowless landscape. Thus, if it was up to me, the winter Olympics would always be held in locations with the highest probability of the former 🙂 Just last weekend, while switching TV channels, I briefly caught a cross-country (or possibly Nordic combined) skiing event on a track that had barely enough snow for a few skiers to go alongside each other. It looked very ugly. Hope to never see such a thing happening in the Olympics.