‘Magical mountain to find’: Canadian Olympic Committee praises Sun Peaks in 2030 Winter Olympic bid

KAMLOOPS — The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) says when it started looking at a secondary venue for some of the snow events, Sun Peaks jumped out right away.

“To find six different courses to come down into two finish areas is a bit of a magical mountain to find,” said head of venues for the 2030 Winter Games bid committee Tim Gayda. “We were able to find all six courses in two stadiums on the one mountain, which is a unique thing to do. That was the starting point.”

The COC likes Mt. Morrisey, where the snowboard, moguls and freestyle skiing would take place, is a north-facing slope and gives more confidence there will be lots of snow during Games time in February.

Beyond the competition side of things, the COC says the accommodations and workforce available between Kamloops and Sun Peaks, as well as the support from the “Tournament Capital of Canada,” made for an appealing location for both the national committee but also the International Olympic Committee.

“[Kamloops’] ability to host events was a great support to what [the Sun Peaks] venue could be,” said Gayda. “It ticked a whole bunch of boxes.”

On Tuesday, the committee unveiled more details on what the 2030 Games would look like if awarded to Vancouver and Whistler, as well as Sun Peaks.

Sun Peaks mayor Al Raine appreciates the praise from the Canadian Olympic Committee.

“We are lucky, we do have a lot of variation in our terrain,” Raine told CFJC Today. “Over on Morrisey, it suits itself very well for both the snowboard and freestyle events.”

The committee also praised Sun Peaks the community, feeling like a town unto itself, and says it would make the 2030 bid feel more like B.C.’s Games, not just Vancouver and Whistler’s.

Unlike the 2010 Olympics, where venues had to be an hour apart, the IOC has given hosts flexibility on where events are held. Gayda pointed to Italy’s 2026 Winter Games bid with Milano and Cortina — cities 400 kilometres apart — as to how things have changed.

“The IOC is working very hard to ensure these projects are sustainable and we’re not just going to build a bunch of venues next to a city that aren’t needed,” Gayda said. “For our project, we had to find a location that not only could host the Games but there was a really meaningful legacy for the sport, so being five hours away, worst case, is not a big deal.”

Raine says with Sun Peaks being built later than most resorts, it was able to assess the pros and cons of others and make Sun Peaks more interconnected, as one example, than others.

“The village density and the planning and the architectural themes that make the village feel like it’s been there for a long time,” said Raine. “Some of the pedestrian trails and access points that are away from the roads that connect the various residential areas with the village and the commercial core is very good. How everything flows ski in and ski out is nearly perfect. There’s hardly a location in Sun Peaks that you cannot ski from that location to a lift.”

The COC says the cost of the 2030 bid will be revealed next month and says it will need the support from all councils. Sun Peaks is waiting for the feasibility study of the Games to decide whether it’ll be worthwhile for the resort municipality to go ahead as a co-host.