The Stockholm-Are plan to stage ice sliding sports across the Baltic Sea at a venue in Latvia avoids building a white elephant venue in Sweden — a key demand of IOC reforms to cut Olympic hosting costs.
Using the sliding track at Sigulda "adds enormous value" to the two-nation bid, Stockholm-Are chief executive Richard Brisius told The Associated Press on Sunday.
"It will be very important for delivering the new transformative games that we want to do," Brisius said.
The International Olympic Committee wants the 2026 Winter Games to help end skepticism about the cost of bidding and hosting the games, after potential bids in Canada, Switzerland and Austria dropped out due to local opposition.
Brisius argued the Latvian element in Sweden's bid is the best example of living up to the IOC's promise to be flexible with candidates aiming to be cost-efficient.
"Are the IOC members ready for that? We are offering that," the Stockholm-Are official said in a challenge to around 85 IOC voters.
"If we can do this, and we show that this is the way to do it, it will open up for more bid cities in the future," Brisius said. "I would not say we are the underdog — I think we are the future."
IOC members are famously discreet about their voting intentions ahead of a hosting vote, and more than one-third of this electorate is voting for the first time.
A total of 35 members have joined since the last contested vote in July 2015 when Beijing edged Almaty to get the 2022 Winter Games.
"I meet people who are very keen to find out what is best for the (Olympic) movement," Brisius said of the newer recruits.
Two of those 35 are Italian — bobsled federation president Ivo Ferriani and Italian Olympic committee head Giovanni Malago — and so cannot vote Monday.
The IOC president traditionally does not vote, though in an expected close race the winner is likely to be the candidate most favored by Thomas Bach's office.