Snow joke, Beijing is up for the Winter Olympics

Du Yanlin, a Beijing activist who was recently detained for taking a selfie in Tiananmen Square to commemorate the 1989 military crackdown, said: “If the IOC wants to champion the purity of sport, it should not allow Beijing to host the Olympics”.

When the worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) gathers today in Kuala Lumpur to name a host for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, it will have a curious choice.

The announcement in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will end a tumultuous search for a prospective host.

Massimov claimed the Olympic bid fits into their broader strategy of becoming the third largest economy in the world by 2050, with their rising influence on the world stage having already been emphasised this week by their “historic” acceptance into the World Trade Organisation in Geneva.

Beset by an active competitors collection, lower public help and weak communication, the Olympic Board chose to minimize on ties using the east coast city.

Organizing committee budget: $1.558 billion.

The Beijing bid committee says on its website: “No organised activities against the bid for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games have been found”.

All of Almaty’s venues are within 30 kilometres (18 miles) of the former capital.

But the Norwegian government balked at the expected $5.5 billion cost, even after a string of cost-saving proposals, including making IOC members pay for their own accommodation during the event. It also has mountains and plenty of natural snow, both useful assets for a Winter Olympics. But this is a bright spot for Almaty, the clear underdog, which is surrounded by the snow-topped Tian Shan mountains.

Song told the People’s Daily that Beijing has ample water resources to make artificial snow if the city is granted the Games.

Weather appears as a common theme in both bids, too.

Almaty’s “Keeping it real” slogan is prominently displayed at events in Kuala Lumpur. Most Western cities would rather not.].

This sounds like a given.

This picture taken on Jan 17 shows people skiing at the Yunding Ski Field, one of the proposed venues for Alpine skiing if Beijing wins the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Chongli town, near Zhangjiakou, in China’s Hebei Province.

But don’t discount Almaty so quickly. Still, it has hosted smaller competitions in recent years that hold some weight. With 9 of 13 venues to be already built, most still new from the 2011 Asian Games or under construction for the 2017 Universiade, they say the 2022 Games are “truly plug and play”. It’s Asia that’s winning out. The IOC has for years been criticized by human rights groups, most notably after awarding the Summer Games to Beijing in 2008 and the Winter Games to Russia’s Sochi in 2014, but has since added anti-discrimination clauses to the host city contract.

In a move welcomed by campaigners, Kazakhstan recently struck down a law that would have prohibited “propaganda” of homosexuality to minors, similar to controversial legislation in Russian Federation.

The Chinese city has the advantage of being familiar to all the delegates thanks to the 2008 Games, while none have been to Almaty because IOC rules prevent members from visiting bid cities.

Minority groups, especially Tibetans, Mongolians and Uighurs from the far northwestern region of Xinjiang, have also complained of tighter limits on political and religious life as well as being denied the right to travel overseas.

” the placement of The Chinese government is one among zerotolerance that is likewise the wish of most Chinese individuals”, Wang extra. Kazakhstan also is under scrutiny for its human rights record.

Beijing has, in part, framed the 2022 Winter Olympics as a way of solidifying the cold-weather sports market in China.

Beijing and Almaty made their final bids for the 2022 Winter Olympics with China’s basketball legend Yao Ming countering Kazakhstan’s prime minister in the battle to sway decision-makers ahead of tomorrow’s vote. In a nod to Beijing’s notorious air quality, officials have pledged improvements.