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Delivering sustainable, feasible Games a key issue, says IOC chief

KUALA LUMPUR — International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach expects the vote to determine which city will host the 2022 Winter Olympics to come down to the quality of sports facilities for athletes, and which bid is perceived as the most sustainable.

IOC president Thomas Bach. Photo: AP

IOC president Thomas Bach. Photo: AP

KUALA LUMPUR — International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach expects the vote to determine which city will host the 2022 Winter Olympics to come down to the quality of sports facilities for athletes, and which bid is perceived as the most sustainable.

Bach is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the IOC will vote on Friday to choose between Beijing and Almaty in Kazakhstan.

“The key issue is to deliver a great Games for the athletes, and that means having (a bid) which offers great conditions in the sport facilities and also ... a project which addresses the issues of Olympic Agenda 2020, that means to have a sustainable and feasible Olympic Games,” Bach said. “And this is what both Beijing and Almaty are offering. This is why my IOC colleagues will have to make a very difficult decision.”

Both China and Kazakhstan have been assailed for their human rights records. Human Rights Watch issued a report criticising Kazakhstan’s “hostility and abuse” toward individuals from the LGBT group, while China has been involved in a recent crackdown on rights lawyers.

Almaty backers promote the bid as being the most compact for the Winter Olympics in 30 years, and say it is the most affordable alternative. Beijing offers its experience in hosting the Olympics, and a number of existing world-class facilities.

The two cities are the only two contenders remaining in a race depleted by withdrawals when public opposition and financial concerns in Europe began whittling the field of candidates one by one. St Moritz/Davos and Munich dropped proposed bids after they were rejected in referendums in Switzerland and Germany. Stockholm; Krakow, Poland; Lviv, Ukraine; and Oslo, Norway all dropped out of the race.

The Chinese capital, which hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, is aiming to become the first city to hold both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Organisers there have repeatedly stressed they would put on “sustainable” and “economical” games, using infrastructure from the 2008 Summer Games and promising to leave a “powerful legacy” by developing a winter sports market for China and east Asia. AP

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