The Olympic dreams of Copenhagen’s Mayor for Culture and Leisure, Mia Nyegaard (Radikale Venstre), have officially come to an end. Her plan to bring the Olympic Games or the Youth Olympic Games to the Danish capital was introduced in summer 2023 with the promise of delivering “the smallest, cheapest and most sustainable Olympics ever”.
Nyegaard visited Paris to draw inspiration and secured DKK 500,000 (approx. €67,000) for a preliminary feasibility study. The goal was to explore Copenhagen’s capacity to host major international sporting events and potentially launch a formal bid for the 2030 Youth Olympics.
Plans halted by missing national partnership
Despite broad support among city council members and preliminary findings suggesting that Copenhagen could meet most requirements to host a Youth Olympics, the process could not move forward. According to a written statement from the city’s Department of Culture and Leisure, the key obstacle was the absence of a formal partnership between the municipality, the national government, and the Danish Sports Confederation (Danmarks Idrætsforbund).
“It was not possible to establish a formal partnership in time to enter further talks with the IOC about hosting the 2030 Youth Olympics,” Nyegaard explained to DR Sporten.
As a result, the allocated DKK 500,000 was redirected to other development projects within the cultural and leisure sector.
Broad political support, but financial caution
Nyegaard stressed that the vision behind the initiative was ambitious: “We have long aimed to attract major events to Copenhagen. We’re good at logistics, and we must dare to have big visions that can benefit the entire city.”
Many of her colleagues at Copenhagen’s City Hall agreed. However, the lack of concrete national involvement stalled the momentum needed to formally engage with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Denmark’s Minister for Culture, Jakob Engel-Schmidt (Moderates), had previously expressed a positive view of the idea. Yet he also cautioned that the costs associated with organising an Olympics run into billions of kroner and should not be underestimated.
“It’s not something we can just promise to do overnight,” Engel-Schmidt stated in an interview with DR during the 2023 Paris Olympics.
A symbolic loss for Copenhagen
The failed bid is a setback for Copenhagen’s broader ambitions to become a host city for large-scale global events. While the feasibility study highlighted the city’s strengths—especially in infrastructure and organisation—the inability to build a unified national coalition ended any Olympic aspirations for the foreseeable future.
Still, Copenhagen maintains a so-called mega-event fund (megaevent-pulje), which could support future efforts to attract large-scale events in sport and culture. According to Nyegaard, the Olympic vision was part of “setting the bar high”—even if that bar, for now, remains out of reach.
