The City of Calgary announced yesterday (June 7) that Scott Hutcheson, formerly of Huntsville, has been selected as the chair of the Calgary 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Bid (officially called Calgary 2026, for short) Board of Directors.
Hutcheson still has family in the Huntsville area and now lives in Alberta. He is the co-founder of Aspen Properties and currently serves as the company’s Executive Chair of the Board; is the Chair of the Board of Directors of Arts Commons, a multi-venue arts centre in downtown Calgary; is Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for Winterstart, which operates both the men’s and women’s Alpine World Cup ski races at Lake Louise; and serves as Chair of the Board of WinSport, which owns and operates legacy assets from Calgary’s 1988 Olympic Winter Games.
He will be formally installed as Chair at the first meeting of Calgary 2026’s Board of Directors.
The city began a bid exploration in 2016 and noted in its media release that “Calgary 2026 will clarify the vision and details of a potential Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and will develop a more accurate hosting cost estimate. Calgary 2026 will also produce a Bid Book, which would be submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in January 2019, if all parties decide to move forward with the bid and the IOC selects Calgary to become a 2026 Candidate City.”
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said, “Calgary City Council is very pleased to have Mr. Hutcheson take on this role as the Calgary 2026 Board Chair. He understands the opportunities and challenges ahead of us and is an excellent representative of Calgarians and our wider community. Of course, there are still many questions left to answer before we decide to submit a bid. With a Board Chair in place, we can confidently engage in thoughtful public discussion and deliberation.”
Calgary 2026’s next steps are to appoint a Vice-Chair, to hire a CEO and to work with the Bid’s partners as they appoint Directors to the Board.
“The Canadian Olympic Committee strongly supports the selection of Mr. Scott Hutcheson as the Calgary Bid’s Board Chair. Mr. Hutcheson is an experienced and trusted visionary who is a perfect fit for this role. We are confident in his ability to deliver an inspiring and transparent vision for a potential 2026 Winter Olympic Games,” said Tricia Smith, President of the Canadian Olympic Committee. “Most importantly, he believes in the power of sport and the positive impact it can have for the people of Calgary and our country.”
Public engagement about the potential Olympic bid will take place in Calgary in the coming months, and a plebiscite is anticipated to take place later this year. Together, the Bid’s partners will ultimately decide whether Calgary will submit a bid to host the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
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Mr. Hutcheson, I hope you are successful in your endeavour to secure the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter games for Calgary! Good for Calgary and good for Canada!
Awesome! Very proud of our hometown guy! Congrats Scott!!!
Our own Huntsville Boy! Dad is proud.