Oslo, Almaty and Beijing become Candidate Cities for the Olympic Winter Games 2022

The Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) unanimously agreed today that Oslo (Norway), Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Beijing (China)* would progress from the Applicant City Phase to the Candidate City Phase in the bid to host the Olympic Winter Games 2022.

The EB based its decision on a technical analysis of the Applicant Cities’ applications submitted earlier this year. The analysis and subsequent report were made by an IOC-appointed working group of Olympic Games experts who assessed each Applicant City’s potential for successfully staging the Olympic Winter Games 2022. The technical assessment was based on a number of criteria, covering a variety of areas such as venues, transport, accommodation and security. Click here for the full report.

Each city was encouraged to produce a bid best suited to their own unique circumstances, with plans that reflect their own specific vision for how the Games can benefit their cities and regions and ensure positive, sustainable legacies for their populations. Oslo, Almaty and Beijing have done that:

- Oslo is focusing its bid on youth and building on the great legacy of the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer 1994. It hopes to inspire the population to embrace a healthier and more active lifestyle.

- Almaty’s legacy plans centre on providing the conditions to enable the city to become a sports, tourism and convention hub in Central Asia.

- Beijing is seeking to provide an extended legacy for venues built for the Olympic Games 2008. It wants to create a winter sports centre for China and use the Winter Games to act as a catalyst for the further development of the tourism and winter sports industry.

"The Executive Board was impressed by the legacy plans of each of the three cities, and will continue to support any future candidate or host city in developing them further," said IOC President Thomas Bach. "This support will be practical, involving the detailed transfer of knowledge as well as financial. In this respect it was good to see that each of the bidding cities understood the difference between the Olympic Games budget and the long-term infrastructure and investment budget, which will benefit their communities for decades to come," he added.

"The Executive Board is confident that the future hosts of the Olympic Winter Games can break even with the Olympic Games budget – as Vancouver has just announced for the Olympic Winter Games 2010. Or, as in the case of Sochi, make a considerable profit, which they project to be in the range of 200 million dollars," said President Bach. "This is possible not least because of the extensive financial assistance given by the IOC. In the case of Sochi, this amounted to USD 750 million and it is likely that figure will be even higher for the host of the Olympic Winter Games 2022," he added.

The Candidate Cities have until January 2015 to submit their Candidature Files – in-depth blueprints of the cities’ Olympic projects. The IOC President will then appoint an Evaluation Commission made up of IOC members (who are volunteers) and experts to visit each Candidate City and prepare a technical risk assessment to assist IOC members in electing the host city. This report will be made available to all IOC members ahead of a two-day briefing that provides the members with the opportunity to question the cities directly about their Olympic projects.

In line with the IOC’s commitment to transparency, the documents pertaining to the 2022 bid process are available to the public on www.olympic.org.

As the Olympic Games are a unique project, whose size, scope and complexity mean that they are typically the biggest event that cities looking to host the Games will ever undertake, the IOC assists them in a number of ways, including financially and through an extensive transfer of knowledge programme.

The IOC puts at the disposal of the bid cities a significant amount of information and expertise through its Olympic Games Knowledge Management (OGKM) platform, which takes the form of documentation, experts, workshops and personal observation of previous Games. All Applicant Cities for the Olympic Winter Games 2022 participated in the Sochi 2014 observer programme and the IOC Debriefing of the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi 2014, which allowed the cities to learn the best practices of previous hosts and to adapt those lessons to their own unique context.

Once elected, the IOC continues to support the local organising committees through OGKM, as well as with the regular visits of its Coordination Commissions and experts, who help to guide the organisers, as they develop their Games project. All IOC-related costs (for accommodation, transport, etc.) are covered entirely by the IOC, as is the case during the Games themselves.

The IOC makes a significant financial contribution to the organisation of each edition of the Games, where the budgets of Organising Committees for the Olympic Games are generally privately financed. For example, the IOC and its Worldwide Olympic Partners are expected to contribute around USD 590 million in total to the budget for the organisation of the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi 2014. To reduce the financial burden on the local organisers further, the IOC also assumes the responsibility and cost of the principal Olympic broadcast signal through its fully owned subsidiary Olympic Broadcasting Services SA (OBS). In Sochi this is expected to exceed USD 150 million – making a total IOC financial contribution to the Games of about USD 750 million.

Key Dates:

Phase 2:

- Submission of the Candidature File and Guarantees – 7 January 2015

- IOC Evaluation Commission visits – February to March 2015

- Evaluation Commission report / Candidate City Briefing for IOC Members – May to June 2015 (TBC)

- Election of the 2022 host city by the IOC Session – Kuala Lumpur – 31 July 2015

* The cities are listed according to a drawing of lots carried out by the IOC EB in December 2013.

For more information, please contact the IOC Media Relations Team:

Tel: +41 21 621 6000 e-mail: pressoffice@olympic.org, or visit www.olympic.org.

20 Years at #1: