North and South Korea plan a joint bid for the 2032 Olympics, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in said yesterday. 
The two leaders did not give any further details in a statement at their summit in Pyongyang but the announcement was welcomed “very much” by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. 
South Korea hosted the 1988 Games in Seoul and this year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. After not competing in Seoul, North Korea sent a team to Pyeongchang and the Koreas marched together at the opening ceremony and formed a joint women’s ice hockey team at the Games. 
The two nations also had joint teams in several sports at the recent Asian Games in Jakarta. “After we opened the door for political talks with the joint march of the two Korean teams at the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018, sport could once more make a contribution to peace on the Korean Peninsula and the world,” Bach said. 
“We sincerely wish that these political talks produce the necessary progress for a successful candidature.” 
Bach added the IOC is committed “to continue to support the rapprochement between the two Koreas through sport by supporting athletes and enabling their participation in international competitions and promoting sports exchanges between the two countries.” 
The International Olympic Committee is expected to elect the 2032 host in 2025. The 2020 Games are in Tokyo, the 2024 edition in Paris and 2028 in Los Angeles. Other countries interested to host the 2032 Games include Germany, India and Indonesia. 
“This plan must be welcomed. It shows the strength within the Olympic Movement and the Olympic idea,” Alexander Mronz, who heads the German Rhein-Ruhr area 2032 initiative, said of the Korean news. 
Meanwhile, the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo still intend to bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics, even if plans to host the event with a third city, Turin, have crashed. 
“If Turin is out, the duty of the government is to support those who have not pulled out,” Italian Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said yesterday. While he was speaking, representatives of Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo and the Italian National Olympics Committee (CONI) were in Lausanne to formalize a bid at the International Olympic Committee (IOC). 
In an interview with RAI state radio, CONI President Giovanni Malago said Turin Mayor Chiara Appendino refused to co-operate with Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo on a joint bid. 
This, Malago said, led sports minister Giancarlo Giorgetti to say Tuesday that since the Milan-Turin-Cortina option was off, Olympic bid plans had “died” and were no longer supported by the government. After this announcement, the leaders of Lombardy and Veneto, regions which comprise Milan and Cortina, said they wanted to keep going with a twin-city solution, even without government funding. Malago said he hoped in a last-minute change of heart from Appendino, and argued that a three-city bid, enjoying government backing, would have been “one centimetre away” from success. 
Turin already hosted the 2006 Winter Games, and Appendino said this made the city an ideal lone candidate for 2026. The mountain resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo hosted the event in 1956. Calgary in Canada, Swedish capital Stockholm and Erzurum in Turkey are the other candidates for the 2026 games. The IOC is due to decide on the host city in September 2019.
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