The International Olympic Committee on Monday voted to award the 2026 Winter Olympics to Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo, the Italian bid beating Sweden's Stockholm-Are to the prize.

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The bidding contest for the 2026 event was reduced to a two-horse race after Japan's Sapporo, Switzerland's Sion, Austria's Graz and Canada's Calgary all dropped out of the running. The IOC eliminated Erzurum, Turkey, from consideration in October.

For the second consecutive bid process, there were only two candidates that went the distance and were considered in the final vote.

In the race for the 2022 Games, China's capital Beijing beat out Almaty in Kazakhstan for the right to host the event, the third straight Olympics to be held in Asia.

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Hokkaido's capital Sapporo, which hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics, decided to give up on its 2026 bid following a magnitude 6.7 earthquake that struck in September 2018. More than 40 people were killed and a massive power outage impacted wide areas of the prefecture.

The city found it impossible to proceed with the bid due to the need to repair damage from the quake but said it will aim to host the Winter Games in 2030.