BERNE (Reuters) - Sion's bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics was ratified by the Swiss Olympic committee on Tuesday. The candidacy had been approved by Swiss Olympic's executive board last month but still needed the backing of the country's 86 sports federations, the so-called sport parliament, which it received at an assembly on Tuesday. The federations also agreed to provide eight million Swiss francs ($7.93 million) from Swiss Olympic reserves to fund the first stage of the bid. Swiss Olympic said the next step would be to ask for support from the Swiss government, which could insist on a referendum. Beijing and the nearby city of Zhangjiakou beat Kazakhstan's Almaty for the right to host the 2022 winter Games after the other competitors dropped out, citing costs and other worries.

Source: The Star April 11, 2017 18:00 UTC