Bulgaria to bid for 2018 Winter Olympics

SOFIA, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Sofia, Bulgaria's capital, will submit a new bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, the chairwoman of the State Agency for Youth and Sports Vessela Lecheva announced Wednesday.

Two years after suffering a crushing defeat in its bid for hosting the Winter Olympic Games in 2014, Bulgaria has flaunted confidence that it has a chance to win the race for hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics.

"The capital Sofia needs to have at least one project for a multifunctional hall if we want to stand a bigger chance to be approved in ten years," Sofia chief architect Peter Dikov said.

The hall will have a capacity for 10,000 people and will be constructed near the capital's busiest thoroughfare Tsarigradsko Shosse, fully funded by the state. Construction fees are estimated at between 60 million and 100 million euro.

Sofia was kicked out of the race for hosting the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in June 2006 after the International Olympic Committee short listed three of the candidates and eventually picked the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

That was Bulgaria's third unsuccessful candidature for the Winter Olympics. The country tried its chance for the first time in 1992, when France's Albertville finally won. In 1994 Bulgaria was closest to the host dream, but was short of 16 votes only to defeat Norway's Lillehammer.