Beijing faces Almaty in IOC vote for 2022 Winter Olympics

“Hosting the Winter Games will further the development of winter sports in Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region”.

The world’s most populous nation against a new kid on the block. A global capital in that hosted an Olympics just a few years of time ago against a city which many people may not be able to find on a map.

With only one week left before the 2022 Winter Olympic Games host city being announced, Brazil Sports Minister George Hilton expressed his support for Beijing and believed China’s capital has a great chance to win it.

Almaty played on China’s lack of snow with its “Keeping it Real” slogan, impressing IOC members who went on an inspection visit in June.

Seventy per cent of the arenas in the former Soviet winter sports resort are within a radius of 30 kilometres from the Olympic Village, and 80 per cent are already ready.

“The IOC faces a devil’s alternative, finding itself forced to choose between two cities – Beijing and Almaty, both in countries with abysmal human rights records”, a recent report by Tibet activist groups said.

2008 Summer Olympics host Beijing competes against Almaty, Kazakhstan in the race.

“We vote with our hearts, not with our heads”, said Norwegian IOC member Gerhard Heiberg. “If you look at the history of previous Winter Olympics, 50 minutes from an ice sports venue to a snow sports venue is not the longest”.

“With less than a week before the election, we continue our hard work to demonstrate to the Olympic family the strengths of our bid, which boasts guaranteed delivery and tremendous potential for winter sports”, said Wang Anshun, Beijing mayor and the president of the Beijing 2022 bid committee, after the Beijing delegation’s arrival in Kuala Lumpur on July 25.

Almaty scored points with its presentation in Lausanne in June, showing images of deep, natural snow.

Almaty, with a population of 1.6 million in the foothills of the Tian Shan mountains and lots of real snow, is bidding with a concept of a winter Games within a short distance. “So what we’re blessed with is sufficient water reserve and also the snow making capability”.

“In the unlikely event of an extreme weather condition, we have the capacity to rely entirely on artificial snow-making facilities and comply with all snow requirements”, said bid spokeswoman Wang Hui.

The Alpine ski venue at Yanqing will need artificial snow to put on the contest. That requires situating the ski and sliding events at venues in Yangqing and Zhangjiakou, 60km and 140km outside the city, while indoor events will use venues in the city centre.

Kazakhstan has been accused of media restrictions and doing little to stop violence and discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

With the majority of IOC members not coming from winter sports countries, Friday’s vote will be influenced by geopolitics, sentiment and other factors.

“We’re already seeing these trends”, said Zhao Yinggang, the deputy secretary-general of the Beijing 2022 Bid Committee.