A plan to allow geographic regions, and...

A plan to allow geographic regions, and not just countries, to host future Winter Olympics is under study, International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch said in Brussels.

“With regionalization, it will become possible to share the Games between countries,” Samaranch said.

Samaranch said that one city could cope with running the Summer Games, but it often turned out that a localities within a region combined to do the job for the Winter Games.

He said the IOC was looking into the idea of allowing regions to apply to host the Winter Olympics. He said the study was still in its early stages.