On the Scene in Lausanne - 2015 IOC Session Bound for Kuala Lumpur

(ATR) Kuala Lumpur will be the stage for the 2022 Winter Olympics to be awarded in 2015.

That's the decision taken Tuesday in Lausanne by members of the IOC Executive Board, who chose the Malaysian capital over a rival bid from Lima, Peru.

Hosting rights to the 127th Session must still be approved by this summer's 124th Session in London, an apparent formality given the ouster of the only other candidate.

Asked by Around the Rings what made the difference for EB members, the director general of the IOC suggested the selection was perhaps more about Lima than Kuala Lumpur.

"The Evaluation Commission looked into the bids from the two countries and came to the conclusion that the file of Lima presented a certain lack of information which would not guarantee a successful staging of the Session," said Christophe De Kepper, who was making his EB press briefing "debut" Tuesday.

"So that's the reason why we went for Kuala Lumpur, and that choice will be presented to the Session after a visit of the Evaluation Commission to Kuala Lumpur."

De Kepper was quick to add that the loss was not a reflection of Lima but rather of the proposal submittedby the Peruvian capital.

"That does not mean that Lima does not have the quality to organize a Session," he said, "but on the basis of the information they delivered, it was difficult to make a decision to move ahead with them."

Communications director Mark Adams then chimed in with a reminder that Miraflores, one of 42 independent districts within the much largermetropolis of Lima, will organize the IOC's next World Conference on Sport for All in April 2013.

Despite the two-way race seen Tuesday, desire to host the 2015 IOC Session didn't stop with Malaysia and Peru, according to De Kepper.

A combination of whittling down by the IOC and withdrawals by the cities themselves followed an early stage in which around eight or nine countries submitted expressions of interest, he said.

And now there's just Kuala Lumpur, who gets an important IOC meeting with which to cut its teeth.

Bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics begins next year with applications closing a few weeks after the September election of the 2020 Summer Games city. A vote for 2022 then tops the agenda for the 2015 Session.

Kuala Lumpur is no stranger to breaking new ground. The city hosted Asia's first Commonwealth Games in 1998 and was home to the two tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004.

IOC member, NOC president and recently elected Commonwealth Games Federation president Prince Tunku Imran also hails from Malaysia.

Reported in Lausanne by Matthew Grayson

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