No sooner had the final whistle blown on Euro 2008 than attention in Geneva switched to the Olympics. But not this summer’s Beijing Games… rather the Winter Olympics in 2018. Geneva announced six months ago that it was looking at the idea of bidding for the Games. And its success in hosting the European football championships has put fresh wind in the sails of those behind the project.

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That was Jean-Loup Chappelet, a member of the exploratory bid committee. The project, as it stands, would encompass the Lake Geneva region, including parts of Vaud and Valais. The idea would be to hold the alpine skiing competitions in Crans Montana, with Leysin earmarked for snowboarding and Champéry for cross-country skiing. Ice sports would be staged in and around Geneva. The key now is to get things moving. Michael Kleiner, head of sports policy for the canton of Geneva, says 2018 might seem a long way away but the committee has less than two years in which to submit a bid.

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But time constraints aside, Kleiner believes Geneva has a strong chance of hosting the Games. In order to submit a bid, the committee will have to convince both the Swiss Olympic Association and the local population. Swiss Olympic bosses have yet to be won over; while public support for the project is an unknown quantity, acknowledges Jean-Loup Chappelet.

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If the experience of Bern is anything to go by, then public backing is a far from foregone conclusion. Five years ago, the Bernese rejected the idea of bidding for the 2010 Winter Games, saying it would cost too much money.