The International Olympic Committee has officially begun its search for the host of the 2018 Winter Olympics.

“National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have been invited to submit the name of a city within their jurisdiction as an applicant to host the Games in a little under nine years’ time,” the IOC said in a statement. (reuters)

Potential bids are to come from Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Pyeongchange (South Korea). Both countries will be keen to finally bring the Winter Olympics to their respective cities as both missed out for 2014, Sochi in Russia winning the bid by just 4 votes. Harbin (China) makes up the remainder of Asian bids.

Potential bids in Europe include Germany and France, despite a winter Olympics never being held in the same continent back-to-back. With two-time two-time Olympic figure skating gold medallist Katarina Witt spearheading the Munich 2018 bid, the city aims to be the first to host both the winter and summer games – the 1972 summer games were held there. Munich’s bid will also benefit from the financial clout of BMW, pitching their vision of a “sustainable” winter Olympics.

With France orginally preferring to focus on the 2024 summer games, 4 cities expressed an interest in hosting the 2018 winter games. On the 18th March 2009, Annecy, in the French Alps, was chosen as France’s candidate city, ahead of rival cities, Grenoble, Nice and Pelvoux. France has previsouly hosted 3 winter games – 1992 in Albertville, in 1968 in Grenoble, and in Chamonix in 1924.

The winning city will be chosen on July 6, 2011 by IOC members meeting in Durban, South Africa, according to a timetable published by the IOC on Friday (31/07/2009).

Let’s hope the 2018 mascots will be as good as next years.