The Olympics will be making a return to Beijing as the Chinese city was chosen to play host to the 2022 Winter Games.
Beijing became the only city to host both the Summer and Winter games having narrowly beating out Almaty, Kazakhstan 44-40 in the final vote. Beijing and Almaty though became two outliers to make the final vote after a number of European cities pulled out of the bidding due to financial and political reasons surrounding the event.
Like the 2008 Summer Games, the 2022 Winter Games for Beijing didn’t come without plenty controversy. Beijing still has a very questionable human rights record, environmental record and the lack of natural snow in the mountains surrounding the city.
Olympic skeleton champion Lizzie Yarnold said: “Before 2008 there was a lot of discussion around human rights and awareness around it. I hope that the International Olympic Committee have taken that into consideration and are going to make actual changes this time, rather than just discuss it.
“The venues need to be technically excellent. They need to be Olympic standard for you to bring good performances as athletes. I really hope the IOC will make sure that things are ready for the World Cup races that will have to take place there before the Olympics.”
If Sochi was acceptable then I guess why wouldn’t Beijing be? If you have money, the IOC will hold the Olympic Games in Libya if they had to.