2022 Olympic Bids Face Challenges With Optimism

Almaty, Beijing and Oslo are selected by the IOC to enter the final stage of bidding. The IOC Executive Board voted unanimously Monday to keep these three cities in the race without cutting any of the candidates.

"The IOC is very happy to see three very different approaches with regard to the organization of the games," Bach said.

"This gives the IOC a choice between three diverse bids, with different legacy plans, with different approaches, with different budgets."

Representative from the three cities reacted enthusiastically, while underlining the merits of their individual bids.

Oslo bid leader Eli Grimsby told Around the Rings she was "so happy" the Norwegian bid had been named as a candidate city "after two years of hard work".

Clearly there is more hard work ahead for Oslo, which has yet to secure government guarantees for financing the Games. Oslo also has public opinion against the bid: 50 percent are against, while 36 percent are in favor.

"I think we will have to work with the Norwegian public from now until 2022, if we are so lucky to be the one. That’s how it is in Norway. You need to discuss, you need to answer the questions.

"This is a mega-event for a little country like Norway. Though we are quite rich, we are still only five million people," Grimsby said.

Norwegian cross-country skiing legend Bjørn Dæhlie offered his thoughts about a possible return of the Winter Games to a nation ingrained with deep roots and tradition in winter sport.

"I hope that we can show that Norway can present the Olympics in 2022 and bring the atmosphere back from Lillehammer 1994," said Daehlie, a 12-time Olympic medalist.

"The soul, atmosphere and traditions in Norway is something we want to show and I think something that others want to take part in."

Almaty 2022 executive board member Andrey Kryukov spoke about the merits of his country’s bid, advising that the candidate city is already on the right track in terms of venues and infrastructure.

"This is a great honor for us,"Kryukovsaid. "We offered our plans and now we go the guidance of all the experienced experts how to improve them and make them fitting to host a wonderful Games."

"Our concept with only 35 kilometers being the radius of the Games is what we have to offer," Kryukov said. "We also have an existing infrastructure with 62 percent ready and in 2017, ninety percent will be ready because two facilities will be done for the University Games in 2017."

Despite the coming of the Winter Universiade in three years and its hosting of the 2011 Asian Winter Games, Almaty scored the lowest of the three cities in experience hosting winter sports events. The IOC Working Group report that evaluatedthe three applications also expressed concern for unrealistic marketing targets as well as air pollution.

Beijing 2022 vice president Yang Xiaochao said that if his city is selected as the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Games, a legacy for winter sport will emerge.

"Our bid to host the Olympic Games will light the passion of Chinese people for winter sports," Yang said.

"If Beijing can become the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games this will encourage about 300 million people to participate in winter sports. This is a huge number for participation and I think it is very beneficial for the Olympic

movement."

"There is already a huge Olympic legacy from the success of the Beijing Olympic Games and as far as venues are concerned we only need to build one venue for the ice sports so this is a good way to continue the legacy," Yang said.

The IOC report on the cities says while Beijing offers existing venues to use, care will need to be taken to make sure transportation to venues is not affected by traffic jams. Air pollution is another worry in the IOC report as is the potential for lack of snow at one of the Alpine venues. Beijing scores the highest in public opinion with 77 percent in favor of hosting the Winter Games.

Written by Brian Pinelli.

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