It would allow Barcelona to follow in the footsteps of Beijing as a Summer and Winter host city.

"How much is 15 days of publicity worth for a territory at a global level and seven years talking about the Pyrenees?" Font, secretary general of the Vice-Presidency of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Government of Catalonia, told Radio Catalunya.

Mountain events are projected for the Pyrenees in the prospective bid, although and sliding events would need to be held in the Savoie region of France or even in Sarajevo.

A group from Barcelona 2030 were to have been here in the Chinese capital, but the Future Hosts Observer Programme was cancelled as part of the precautions against COVID-19.

A referendum could follow in the summer, although 75 percent support has been claimed by supporters of the bid.

There remain political obstacles because the Province Aragon is said to be angry that it is being excluded from the bid.

The IOC has recently struggled to attract hosts for the Winter Olympic Games. 

Only Beijing and Almaty made it to the final vote for 2022 and for 2026, a joint bid from Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo and Stockholm were the only cities to contest the election.

Barcelona’s co-hosting idea with the Pyrenees would fall in line with the International Olympic Committee’s Agenda 2020 +5 strategy.

"The International Olympic Committee doesn’t want a city without a well argued legacy programme," Catalan Winter Sports Federation President  Monica Bosch told Catalonia News.

"They want to know the future use of all the sport venues.

"The Pyrenees Barcelona bid has worked with this from the beginning,

"I think that the final goal of organising an Olympic Games has to be to improve the quality of life of the people who live in the Olympic areas,” she continued.

"The Pyrenees regions in the past years have had a lack of investment and maybe a lack of attention."

Plans for a Pyrenees/Barcelona Games would include Ceremonies at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys on Montjuïc, which staged the memorable 1992 Opening Ceremony.

Ice events would be staged in the complex used for indoor events in 1992.

Font ruled out the construction of new sliding facilities at an estimated cost of €200 million (£168 million/$228 million).

"Bobsleigh has no tradition in Catalonia," he said

Instead  events could be held in Tignes or Courchevel, both centres used in the Winter Olympic Games when they were staged in Albertville in 1992. 

Many believe this would offer an historical link between the Summer and Winter hosts of 1992.

The possibility of holding the sliding events at the 1984 bob run at Trebevic in Sarajevo would provide a more emotional link.

The 1992 Olympics in Barcelona were held at the height of the Balkan War and were the first at which competitors from Bosnia Herzegovina were allowed to compete under their own flag.

Relations between the two cities remain warm.

Environmental groups have voiced opposition to the bid and already formed a lobbying group to try to scupper the campaign. 

"It makes no sense to host a Winter Olympics in a place where, as climate change goes on, the snow is becoming thinner and more scarce," Pau Lozano, from the group "Stop Olympics", said. 

"In the middle of climate and energy crises and drought, it makes no sense to make artificial snow if there is none, with all the energy and water consumption it would need,”"

In the race for 2030, Barcelona could face opposition from three former Winter Olympic hosts - Sapporo, the Japanese resort which staged the 1972 Games, Salt Lake City, the United States city who organised them in 2002, and Vancouver, the Canadian city who put them on in 2010. 

Spain has never hosted the Winter Olympics, although the resort of Jaca bid for the 1998 Olympics and again for 2002, 2010 and 2014 without success.