Winter Olympics 2022 decision: Beijing beats Almaty to host Games – as it happened
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Beijing narrowly beat Almaty 44-40 in the IOC vote to win the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics and Lausanne was also confirmed as the home of the 2020 Youth Olympic Winter Games
IOC president Thomas Bach, left, announces Beijing as the host city the the 2022 Winter Olympics as China’s Yao Ming celebrates. Photograph: Edgar Su/Reuters
IOC president Thomas Bach, left, announces Beijing as the host city the the 2022 Winter Olympics as China’s Yao Ming celebrates. Photograph: Edgar Su/Reuters
Well it went the way that everyone expected but it was very close: Beijing winning the vote 44-40. You can’t help feel for Almaty: they put together a very strong bid to genuinely gave the Chinese reason to worry: the Kazakhstani city has an abundance of snow and ice, which Beijing doesn’t, conveniently located venues, which Beijing doesn’t, but ultimately was able to convince the IOC members. There were 15 IOC members missing at the vote, might they have made a difference?
Both cities had issues with their human rights record, and Beijing will continue to be dogged with these question marks in the lead up to 2022. After so many candidate cities withdrew their bids to host the Games – Munich, Oslo, Stockholm, Lviv, Krakow, and Graubunden – it remains unclear how much financial reward is gained from being a host, but Beijing said it would use the win as a springboard to tackle the toxic air pollution that often enshrouds the capital and Jin Shan, a sports commentator, said the victory would give “a huge boost” to China’s attempts to build a 5 trillion yuan (£516bn) sports industry and would create millions of jobs.
We are honoured and humbled by the International Olympic Committee’s decision to award Beijing the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. It is with an incredible sense of excitement that we express our thanks to the IOC and the wider Olympic Movement. Just as with the Beijing 2008 Summer Games, the Olympic Family has put its faith in Beijing again to deliver the athlete-centred, sustainable and economical Games we have promised. This will be a memorable event at the foot of the Great Wall for the whole Olympic Family, the athletes and the spectators that will further enhance the tremendous potential to grow winter sports in our country, in Asia and around the world. We would like to congratulate Almaty 2022 for their campaign. We wish to thank once again all the Chinese people and people around the world who have supported Beijing 2022 in this extraordinary Bid journey. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our devoted athlete Ambassadors, experts and all who contributed to this victory.
Now for the main event: Beijing v Almaty next. But they’re dragging this out nice and proper: Edwards is talking some nonsense on the stage:
“Sochi will always have a special place in my heart. That slogan ‘Hot. Cool. Yours … Genius,” says Edwards with a raised eyebrow. Not a hint of sarcasm in his voice there. Hope he’s being paid well for this.
The two candidates fighting it out to become host city for the 2020 Youth Olympic Winter Games are Brasov in Romania and Lausanne in Switzerland. And the winner is …
Interestingly, there have been no human rights protests in Kuala Lumpar today. Instead, the only people gathered outside the hotel are a handful of pro-Chinese supporters.
Last month at a candidate city briefing, there were significant protests, by pro-Tibet protesters who broke into the hotel and unfurled banners with “Free Tibet” and “No More Bloody Games”. This is in response to what they see as broken promised by the Chinese that the 2008 Summer Games would be a way to improve the plight of Tibetans in the country. Beijing is bidding to become the first ever city to host both a summer and winter Games.
Despite pledges made to improve human rights in China before the 2008 summer Games, some feel that thing have in fact got worse. In 2008 China ranked 167th on the Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index. In 2014 it dropped to 175th.
Almaty stat attack! (courtesy of our partners on the New East network)
2 - The number of times Almaty has bid to host a Winter Olympics. The first was for the 2014 games, but those went to Sochi. The second is for the 2022 games.
6.2 - Almaty says it isready to spenda total of $6.2 billion for the Winter Olympics, including $4.5 billion for infrastructure projects the city says it plans to build with or without the games. That compares to an estimated $51 billion spent by Russia for the Sochi Winter Olympics, the largest amount ever spent on the games.
24 - The number of years Kazakhstan has been ruled since independence by former Soviet party boss Nursultan Nazarbaev. He is regularly criticised by human rights groups for jailing opposition figures and for tight controls over freedom of expression, including police breaking up peaceful protests as small as one or three people.
30 - The maximum number of minutes the Kazakh Olympic Committee says it would take to travel from Almaty to most competition venues in the nearby Tian Shan mountain range, in whose foothills the city nestles.
53 - The average number of days it snows in Almaty each year.
4,000 - The altitude -- in meters -- of the mountain peaks around Almaty.
1,600,000 - The population of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest financial and business center and the capital of the country until it was moved to Astana in 1997.
I’ve just found out that one of the venues at Almaty is called ‘The Ice Palace’, which would host the ice hockey and figure skating. For that reason alone, I’m throwing my support behind the Kazakhstanis.
An ice palace, earlier. Not in Kazakhstan. Photograph: Michael Buholzer/Reuters
So the paper ballot has worked, and we will have the result at 10.30am BST, which is 5.30pm local time in Kuala Lumpur.
If you’re just joining us, the electronic vote was abandoned earlier after IOC director general Christophe De Kepper told the delegates that there had been “interferences with changes of tablets” and that scrutineers “are not comfortable with the integrity of the vote.”
We can only speculate what that means, but it definitely sounds like there’s been funny business in Kuala Lumpur.
Whilst we wait, let’s cast our minds back to last year’s Winter Games in Sochi. It was another Games shrouded in controversy, but it did throw up some fantastic sporting moments.
What was your favourite moment? The ice hockey match between Russia and USA? Lizzie Yarnold’s skeleton run to gold? Do get in contact via michael.butler@theguardian.com and @michaelbutler18.
I’d probably plump for Jenny Jones’s bronze in the snowboarding slope style myself.
So the members have scribbled which city they want, they’ve had their paper ballots collected by some IOC suits and now they are to be counted. It will be a while until we know the result, but many are estimating that it will be before the 11am BST scheduled time.
Almaty does have the advantage that all venues sit within a 20-mile radius whilst government officials have promised a $75bn fund to shore up any fiscal risk.
As you might expect, Beijing’s bid isn’t without some financial clout, but the distance between Beijing and the farthest mountain venue cluster close to Zhangjiakou is 120 miles.
The Chinese are planning to build a high-speed railway from Beijing to Zhangjiakou, which should cut the travelling time to 50 minutes. There goes that “minimal environmental impact” promise, then.
Drama! There’s been some problem with the electronic tablets that the members are voting on, and the IOC “doesn’t feel comfortable with the integrity of the vote”.
So we’re going to have a written ballot instead! What a palaver. Worst vote ever.
Buttons have been pressed, the votes are in. Seeing as it’s being done electronically, I have no idea why the IOC are choosing to wait to announce the results, but they are.
Chinese president Xi Jinping has made a last minute bid to swing the vote Beijing’s way, with a one-minute video address to the IOC delegates in Kuala Lumpur.
In the pre-recorded video - part of today’s final pitch - Xi promises his government will throw all its quite considerable weight behind the Chinese bid. “The Chinese people are looking forward to this opportunity. Let me assure you that if you choose Beijing the Chinese people will present to the world a fantastic, extraordinary and excellent Olympic Winter Games in Beijing,” Xi added.
Meanwhile, look who is lending China a gigantic hand: Yao Ming! Seen here towering over IOC President Thomas Bach.
The Kazakhstanis aren’t pulling any punches. Prime Minister Karim Massimov has had this to say:
“Our bid is all based upon facts. We have heard if you don’t pick Almaty, the IOC cannot sleep well over the next seven years,” he said.
“It was the IOC who took the [1964] Games to Tokyo 20 years after World War Two and to Moscow [in 1980] during the height of the Cold War.
“You were right to do this. Today we ask you to have faith in us, to have faith in Kazakhstan.”
“We are a golden opportunity to show smaller, advancing nations can host the Games, to give athletes the true winter experience they deserve, and one they will remember for the rest of their lives.”
Beijing is the clear favourite to win the vote but one of the biggest issues facing Beijing in their bid to host the Winter Olympics is … um … it doesn’t have any snow. Not that the weather in 2022 seems to be an issue when deciding where to host major international sporting events. Qatar is lovely this time of year I here.
China’s Sports Minister Liu Peng played down any concerns about lack of snow, saying ski resorts have been operating in the proposed mountain venues for two decades. “Beijing 2022 will build on our existing snow-making capabilities to supplement snowfall... with minimal environmental impact,” he said. “We have a strong experience in organising winter Games.”
China planning to effectively play God but whilst having a minimal environmental impact? OK then.
Almaty’s slogan is ‘Keeping it Real’, a thinly disguised dig at the fact that they might actually have some weather. Definitely better than Beijing’s slogan: ‘Joyful Rendezvous Upon Pure Ice And Snow … ’
For the most part, Munich, Stockholm, Krakow, and Graubunden dropped out due to high costs, low public support and security demands. Lviv was forced to pull out due to unrest in Ukraine. Oslo was a clear frontrunner, but its bid was derailed when conservatives and progressives joined forces to say no.
Hello world, and welcome to our live blog on the IOC vote to decide which city will host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
After Munich, Oslo, Stockholm, Lviv, Krakow, and Graubunden, Switzerland withdrew from the initial bidding process, it’s done to two: Beijing and Almaty.
There are a variety of issues with both remaining cities, not least the human rights issues that come with hosting an Olympics Games in China or Kazakhstan. We will go into them in due course, but have a read of Jules Boykoff’s excellent comment piece in the meantime.
The decision is expected at 11am BST: here are a few things that you might want to know about the vote:
Some 85 members of the 100-strong IOC will be voting at the 128th session in the Malaysian capital with a straight majority sufficient to decide the outcome.
The IOC President Thomas Bach has elected not to vote, while a handful of other members, including Fifa president Sepp Blatter, are not present.
It is an anonymous vote, and conducted electronically.
Voters can abstain, but voting by proxy is not permitted
Any tie means there will be another vote. Another tie after that means “the president will decide what to do”, apparently.
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