“The first time in Olympic history that a city will host both a summer and a winter Olympics”.
The Olympics have traditionally rotated between continents as part of an informal deal.
Within minutes of the announcement that Almaty’s bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics had failed, it was nearly as if it had never happened. Two years later, the Winter Olympic flame will burn in Beijing.
Beijing came in to the vote as the strong favorite, despite its lack of natural snow.
The mountains where Alpine events are to be held, 50 miles from Beijing, get so little precipitation (an average 15 inches per year), that the organizers will be forced to use almost all man-made snow.
Another key factor was the pledge by Beijing’s bid committee to have a high-speed rail line in place by 2022 to cover the 250-kilometer (155-mile) distance between the capital’s downtown and the city of Zhangjiakou, which will host different skiing and snowboarding events.
“We will leverage this success to popularise and develop winter sport in China”, Wang told reporters.
“There could be no snow outside of the racecourse, especially in Yanqing, impacting the visual perception of the snow sports setting”, the IOC said in its assessment.
During the final pitch to the global Olympic Committee, President Xi Jinping vowed via a video link that China would “honour all of its commitments” and “stage an excellent and extraordinary Games”. “This project will help China further integrate with the world”, it added.
The city last hosted the games in 2008 where pollution proved to be a major concern.
“It’s a joyous occasion for Chinese people“.
It’s an historic vote, as it makes Beijing the first city to host a Summer and Winter Games. It beat Kazakhstan’s Almaty 44-40 in a secret ballot of IOC members.The decision was met with elation in China, where it is seen as a vote of worldwide support for the nation’s efforts to promote winter sports and maintain sustainable economic development.
“It will be the biggest challenge in the implementation of the Olympics concepts”, said Alfons Hörmann, president of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB).
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – The Beijing bid delegation had no sooner finished their congratulatory hugs and handshakes after being awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics than criticism from human rights groups over the IOC’s decision began to pour in.
“Whatever the IOC wants or says, the message heard loud and clear in Beijing is that human rights and Tibet don’t matter”.
Beijing assured IOC members their city was the right choice because of its prior experience in hosting the Olympics in 2008 as well as offering the opportunity to market the Winter Games product to an estimated 300 million people in China as unparalleled benefits. Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, called it a “a slap in the face to China’s besieged human rights activists”.
IOC president Thomas Bach described the choice of China to host the 2022 Winter Games as both “safe and historic”.
