Epic Attractions

Past Winter Games venues keep the Olympic spirit alive for visitors.

- By Holly Riddle

For the month of February, the world’s eyes will look to Beijing as the 2022 Winter Olympics kicks off Feb. 4. Much like the 2020 Summer Olympics, the games are awash in concern over the COVID-19 pandemic as well as swarmed in controversy connected to human rights issues. The uncertainty has created an environment that could make one wish for Olympics events of the past when the Games were synonymous with universal pride and a sense of togetherness that overcame cultural differences and geographic boundaries.

At past Olympic venues around the globe, echoes of this emotive backdrop still permeate the air. At many, communities and Olympics fans alike joined together to keep the Olympic spirit alive long after the athletes left, providing travelers with the perfect mix of historic significance and modern thrills.

Of them all, one destination stands as a stalwart, unchanging representation of Olympic heritage: Lausanne, Switzerland, the official Olympic Capital of the world and home to the International Olympic Committee. The fourth-largest city in Switzerland, Lausanne gained the status as Olympic Capital in 1994, though it was home to the International Olympic Committee as early as 1915. The city’s Olympic Museum attracts around 300,000 visitors each year with its more than 1,500 artifacts and exhibitions on the Games.

However, for all its Olympic lore, Lausanne itself never hosted the Games. For that, travelers must look elsewhere in Switzerland. On the other side of this small country, about a five-hour drive away, St. Moritz, in the region of Graubünden, awaits as a two-time Winter Olympics host.