Winter Olympics: let's have it in Australia and New Zealand says British newspaper

The Southern Alps - perfect for a Winter Olympics. Picture / Doug Sherring

Australia and New Zealand should bid to hold a joint Winter Olympics, according to an opinion piece in the British newspaper The Guardian.

"New Zealand's Southern Alps, comparable to Alpine regions in Europe, provide world class options for the skiing events," writes Australian Bret Harris.

"Australia may be a sunburnt country and is the flattest continent on Earth, but there is no reason why it can't hold events such as ice hockey, figure skating, curling and speed skating."

Harris argues that the five interlaced rings on the Olympic flag represent the five continents of the world, but the Winter Olympics has only been hosted on three continents by just 12 countries – the US (four times), France (three), Austria (twice), Canada (twice), Japan (twice), Italy (twice), Norway (twice), Switzerland (twice), Germany, Yugoslavia, Russia and currently South Korea.

"No southern hemisphere country has even bid to host the Winter Games. That is at odds with the global values of Olympism."

Harris says there have been studies showing an Australasian Winter Olympics would be feasible. "It is time to take those reports out of the desk drawer and dust them off," he writes.

"Australia has the population to make the Games commercially viable, while New Zealand has world class skiing and snowboarding facilities. It is a winning combination."

The vast majority of Olympic Games, both summer and winter, have been hosted by one country, but there are precedents for the event not to be held entirely in one country. The 1920 summer Games were co-hosted by Antwerp and Ostend in Belgium and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, while the equestrian events of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics were held in Stockholm, Sweden, because of quarantine regulations.

A cold-weather-dependent event, the Winter Olympics is held in February, which is at the height of summer in the southern hemisphere ... "but there is no reason the Games could be not be moved to July if they were held in the southern hemisphere," Harris writes.