Beijing chosen to host 2022 Winter Olympics

This reminds me of the time when I sat in front of TV and saw Beijing was announced to be the city to host 2008 Olympic Games.

Massimov’s presentation earlier on Friday in front of the IOC was widely praised as outstanding and the narrow margin of the defeat, which many observers had not expected, showed Almaty had made more friends within the IOC than previously thought.

In addition to its stellar sponsorship performance, Sochi’s legacy also includes the stonking general infrastructure spend that arguably did more than any other single factor to put European citizens off bidding and produce the change of thinking we now know as Olympic Agenda 2020.

“We are a golden opportunity to prove that smaller advancing nations can successfully host the Olympic Games“, Kazakhstan’s prime minister told the IOC.

Ahead of today’s vote, many had deemed the 2022 Winter Games as the “Games that nobody wants”. “But I don’t think anybody would have believed that the result would have been that close”.

The Beijing 2022 bid committee said in a statement: “We are honoured and humbled by the IOC’s decision to award Beijing the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic winter Games”.

Beijing and Almaty, the only two bid cities, made presentations to 85 voting IOC members just prior to the host city vote, with Beijing emphasizing on its position as the safe choice.

In her final pitch before the vote, Liu Yandong – vice premier of China – emphasized Beijing’s experience in hosting large scale competitions as well as China’s political and economic stability as the best reasons why they would be a good host of the 2022 Winter Olympics. “It is with an incredible sense of excitement that we express our thanks to the IOC and the wider Olympic movement”.

China used giant basketball legend Yao Ming to push Beijing’s case and Kazakhstan’s first skating Olympic medal victor Denis Ten spoke for Almaty.

The speakers also highlighted how recent developments, including the approval of Kazakhstan’s membership to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) and extension of its visa-free program, would help to promote the country’s worldwide brand and make it more attractive to investors and tourists.

As President Xi said, the Chinese people “will present to the world a fantastic, extraordinary and excellent Olympic Winter Games in Beijing”. “Over the next seven years, the IOC has enormous work to do in China to win the credibility on human rights that will ensure a successful Olympics”.

Greenpeace said it considered Beijing’s pollution commitments to be “relatively ambitious”, and that keeping the air clean in February, when the Games would be held, would be “no easy task”.

At a government organised rally near the “Birds Nest” stadium, the centerpiece of the 2008 Olympics, organisers had to ask people to cheer louder after the decision came in.