Frigid, Remote City in the Arctic Makes Bid To Host 2032 Summer Olympics

Reindeer often traverse the slopes in the small, northeastern Finnish town called Salla. The community close to the Russian border is located in the Lapland region known for downright cold winters and beautiful views of the Northern Lights. A sign planted in the mountain proudly marks this small locale as "the middle of nowhere."

The town north of the line marking the Arctic Circle now wants everyone to know where it's at as they're making a bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games, and it's not for balmy summer days and nights.

The annual high temperatures in Salla rarely reach 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The good news is that those nightly temperatures rarely drop below 40 at night. That's in the hottest part of the year, according to weatherspark.com.

This begs the question of why a city of about 3,400 people, one that most people have never heard of, ever knew existed or even has the capacity or infrastructure, could ever host a Summer Games. Heck, the town doesn't have enough for a Winter Games.

With all the likely cities around the globe that could host a Summer Games, it's likely that Hell would freeze over before having a Summer Olympics in Salla ever takes place. The organizers in Salla are counting on the opposite, though.

A campaign called "Save Salla" was launched, complete with a Summer Olympics bid package that's equipped with a reindeer mascot named Kesa, to raise awareness for global warming. The timing of the bid coincides with the 2032 "turning point" the city says will be when the ice begins melting in Salla and summer days begin getting hotter.

The "warmth" is even felt in the message on the bidding city's website.

"Warm heart, we have it. Warm place, coming soon," it reads.

There are much warmer places vying for the 2032 Summer Games, like these cities in the running: Auckland (New Zealand), Bogota (Colombia), Brisbane (Australia), Cairo (Egypt), Casablanca (Morocco), Dohar (Qatar), Jakarta (Indonesia), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Melbourne (Australia), New Delhi or Mumbai (India) and Pyongyang-Seoul (South Korea).

Of course, if Japanese officials back out of the 2020 Tokyo Games in 2021 because of COVID-related issues, the 2032 Games could go back to Tokyo. The 2024 Summer Olympics have already been awarded to Paris, and the 2028 Summer Games have been awarded to Los Angeles.

As for Salla, it's a ploy to garner international attention to global warming.

"The whole world seems to love warm places," it says on the Olympic bid. "Because of Carbon Dioxide produced by humans, the whole planet ecosystem will change. And the four seasons of Salla will become an endless and eternal hot summer."

The website goes on to say how both individuals and businesses around the globe can do their part to stop climate change that they say is changing the landscape of their country.