International Olympic Committee to Choose 2022 Olympic Winter Games Host Friday
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will select the host city of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games during the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Friday, choosing between Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The day's event will kick off with final presentations from Beijing and Almaty in the morning, following by a report given by the Evaluation Commision Chair. Then the two cities will be able to use some of the lunch break for their final press conferences. The voting will take place in the afternoon. Beijing and Kuala Lumpur are in the same time zone, and we will likely hear the final result by dinner time on Friday.
The group of delegates and representatives for Beijing, led by Beijing Mayor and Chairman of the Beijing Olympic Committee Wang Anshun, former NBA All-Star Yao Ming and Beijing native Song Andong, the first Chinese-born player ever selected in the National Hockey League (NHL) draft by the New York Islanders, arrived at Kuala Lumpur for the final presentation on Saturday. According to the Beijing Morning Post, more than 1,000 international journalists have arrived in Kuala Lumpur to report the event. Among them, more than half are from China.
Beijing is considered the favorite since the bidding came down to only Beijing and Almaty, after four European cities — including Oslo and Stockholm — pulled out for political or financial reasons. Almaty has rebounded, offering a compact and economic Olymipcs, which fits perfectly with the IOC's current decision-making logic.
Exactly 631 days ago, Beijing officialy annoucned its plan to host the 2022 Winter Olympics; 516 days ago, we here at the Beijinger declared it Beijing's race to lose; 260 days ago, we downgraded the odds to 50-50. Now as the bid culminates, we're hoping for Beijing's success, and we still believe that Beijing is in the driver's seat.
Stay with our blogs on Friday for the final result.
Follow our full 2022 Winter Games coverage here.
More stories by this author here.
Email: patrickli@thebeijinger.com
WeChat: xinwurenli
Weibo: @lucky__strike
Photos: Chinanews.com, brtn.cn
