베이징, 2022년 동계올림픽 개최…최초로 동·하계 모두 유치 Winter Olympics 2022: Beijing chosen to stage Games(VIDEO)

말레이시아 제128차 국제올림픽위원회(IOC) 총회

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edited by kcontents 

케이콘텐츠 편집

중국 베이징이 2022년 동계올림픽 개최지로 결정됐다. 국제올림픽위원회(IOC)는 31일 말레이시아 쿠알라룸푸르에서 총회를 열고 2022년 동계올림픽 개최지 선정 투표를 했다.   베이징은 카자흐스탄 알마티보다 많은 표를 얻어 동계올림픽 유치에 성공했다. 2008년 하계올림픽을 개최했던 베이징은 동계올림픽 유치에도 성공해 동·하계 올림픽을 모두 유치한 최초의 도시가 됐다. IOC위원 100명 중 89명이 참석했고, 입후보국 위원 3명과 토마스 바흐 위원장을 제외한 85명이 투표를 했다.   애초 IOC는 태블릿을 이용한 전자투표를 할 예정이었으나 기술적인 문제가 발생해 종이투표를 했다. 연합뉴스

Winter Olympics 2022: Beijing chosen to stage Games

Ingrid Piper, for CNN

(CNN)Beijing is set to become the first city to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics after it was chosen to stage the 2022 Winter Games.

International Olympic President Thomas Bach confirmed Beijing, which hosted the Summer Games in 2008, had been chosen ahead of Almaty in Kazakshtan at the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Friday.

"I am so excited. This is China's pride," Zhang Hong, China's women's 1,000m speed skating gold medal winner at the Sochi Games, told CCTV.

Only Beijing and Almaty had been left in the running after Oslo, Munich and Stockholm bowed to public pressure and decided not to pursue plans to host the winter sports showpiece.

David vs Goliath?

Had Kazakhstan's pitch been successful it would have become the first central Asian nation to host the Winter Olympics.

With significant oil and gas reserves, it is now the largest economy in Central Asia and had been keen to use this event to increase investment, development and raise its profile.

Proven track record

But Beijing has already proved its worth as a successful Olympic host, having hosted the summer version of the games in 2008.

Its pitch was about being a safe choice and a top tourism destination with the infrastructure to handle large events. Becoming the first city to run both Olympic games could be tempting PR for the IOC.

Adding to Beijing's bid is the city's proven ability to control smog during the 2008 Summer Olympics. Beijing plans to stage ice events, while snow-based competitions would take place in Zhangjiakou in Heibei Province, 190 km northwest of the city.

Only this week Chinese officials re-iterated that pollution would not be a problem.

China's Vice Premier Liu Yandong delivers a speech during Beijing's 2022 Olympic Winter Games bid presentation at the 128th IOC session on July 31, 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Xu Jicheng, deputy director of Beijing 2022's press and communications department, said that "technically the pollution has been reduced and controlled, we have seven more years to go and it will be sunshine and white clouds."

Lack of choice

With only two cities -- both run by what could be considered authoritarian regimes -- bidding for the prestige of hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics the question arises as to whether the games -- and specifically the winter games -- have lost their allure.

High costs and dubious returns have arguably made democratic countries -- where politicians are forced to listen to their voting public and answerable to budget blowouts -- wary of hosting the world's biggest sporting events.  

Liu Yandong, head of the Beijing 2022 Delegation, waves after placing her city's bid for 2022.

Kazakhstan's Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and President of the National Olympic Committee are pictured with bid committee members presenting their bid.

Over the past two years, cities in Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine have all backed away from proposals to host the Winter Olympics.

Oslo's decision not to continue was taken for both financial and political reasons, the Norwegian Olympic Committee Secretary General, Inge Anderson told CNN last October.

Where once the promise of a boost to tourism and better national sporting facilities would suffice, it seems many countries are heeding the lessons learned from the debt experienced by Greece from the $11 billion bill for 2004 Athens Summer Olympics.

More recently, there's the estimated $50 billion price tag for the last Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Human Rights

IOC President Thomas Bach has stressed that the Olympic Charter of tolerance and no discrimination would apply to any successful bidder.

In its 2014 World Report, Human Rights Watch called Kazakhstan's record "poor" in citing a crackdown on free speech, flawed trials and torture in its prisons as major concerns.

Then there are issues with individual rights, the group says Kazakhstan's LGBT community was "living in fear" as a result of pervasive homophobic attitudes and a lack of government protection.

China too has humanitarian issues.

Beijing's 2008 Summer Olympics were marred by forced evictions and Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently criticized China for having abusive, unaccountable domestic security forces.

Activists have also highlighted what they say is the country's deteriorating human rights, with more than 260 Chinese citizens detained or questioned in a recent crackdown on communist party opponents, activists, journalists and academics.

"The Olympic motto of 'higher, faster, and stronger' is a perfect description of the Chinese government's assault on civil society: more peaceful activists detained in record time, subject to far harsher treatment," said Sophie Richardson, HRW's China director.

"In choosing China to host another Games, the IOC has tripped on a major human rights hurdle."

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/31/sport/winter-olympics-2022-choices/

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