'The Olympics are dead': Does anyone want to be a host city anymore?

[Syt]

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/winter-olympics/33730477

Beijing to host 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics

Beijing has been chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, beating the bid of Kazakhstan's Almaty.

Having hosted the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese capital will be the first city to host both a summer and winter Games.

Beijing and Almaty were considered outsiders when the 2022 bid race opened two years ago.

But after a host of European cities withdrew for political or financial reasons, the Chinese bid beat Almaty by 44 votes to 40 with one abstention.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said that Beijing was awarded the Games because it fitted its new agenda for a "stronger focus on sustainability, legacy, and transparency".

Despite expected costs of up to £962m ($1.5bn), the IOC said: "Beijing will rely heavily on existing venues, including those built for the Games in 2008, such as the iconic Bird's Nest stadium."

The statement added: "Thanks to an additional contribution from the IOC of approximately £564m ($880m) to support the staging of the Olympic Winter Games in 2022, Beijing is confident that it will either break even or make a profit."

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, were estimated to have cost £31bn ($51bn), making it the most expensive Olympics in history.

The Games, which was supported by former NBA star Yao Ming, will be divided between the capital and the city of Zhangjiakou - which is 118 miles north-west of Beijing and will host the snow events.

Despite concerns about a lack of natural snow in the mountains, and protests from human rights groups,  Beijing had been the clear favourite to win the vote after it successfully hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The IOC said in a statement: "Beijing aims to use the Games to accelerate the development of a new sport, culture and tourism area, and to encourage interest in winter sports in a region that is home to more than 300 million people in northern China."

But Human Rights Watch said the decision was "a slap in the face to China's besieged human rights activists".

Sophie Richardson, China director of the pressure group, added: "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."

Olympic skeleton champion Lizzie Yarnold told BBC Radio 5 live: "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."

So that's two Winter Games in a row in shitty time zones for Europeans: South Korea, then PRC. Not that Almaty would have been much better.

[Syt]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_bid_for_the_2022_Winter_Olympics

The Beijing Olympic Games Bidding Committee unveiled the gymnasium layout plan for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games on 20 February 2014: five ice events will be held at the Olympic center, the Capital Indoor Stadium and the Beijing Wukesong Sports Center. Competitions for luge, bobsleigh and alpine skiing will be held in Xiaohaituo Mountain area northwest of Beijing, 90 kilometers away from downtown. All other skiing events will be held in Taizicheng Area in Chongli County, Zhangjiakou, 220 kilometers away from downtown of Beijing and 130 kilometers away from Xiaohaituo Mountain Area.

[Monoriu]

Surprised that the voting was so close.

[Duque de Bragança]

Does it mean China will be pissed off at Kazakhstan? 

[Syt]

So we have in the next years:
- Summer Games 2016: Rio
- Winter Games 2018: Pyeongchang 
- World Cup 2018: Russia
- Summer Games 2020: Tokyo
- Winter Games 2022: Beijing
- World Cup 2022: Qatar

[Zanza]

Euro 2016: France
Euro 2020: Twelve different countries

[Eddie Teach]

Why does Brazil rate a smile and South Korea doesn't?

[Liep]

Why does Brazil rate a smile and South Korea doesn't?

Copacabana.

[Syt]

Why does Brazil rate a smile and South Korea doesn't?

Feels like a "meh" location for Winter Games.

[Syt]

Euro 2016: France
Euro 2020: Twelve different countries

That too!

[Syt]

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/07/a-winter-olympics-in-a-city-without-snow/400250/?utm_source=SFFB

A Winter Olympics in a City Without Snow

The IOC's selection of Beijing as the host of its 2022 games is met with a lukewarm response.

When the International Olympic Committee selected Beijing on Friday as the host for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, the Chinese capital became the first city to have hosted both the Summer and Winter games. This, most likely, isn't coincidental: Beijing's hosting of the Summer games in 2008 was generally considered a success, and Almaty, the Kazakh city whose bid placed second, lacks comparable experience.

A closer examination of Beijing's 2022 bid, though, reveals the selection is far more peculiar than it seems at first glance. One reason: It barely snows in Beijing. China's northern plain is extremely dry, and what precipitation that falls in the capital tends to occur during the summer. Beijing's Olympic planners have assured the IOC this won't be a problem—the country will simply use artificial snow to accommodate events, such as skiing, that require it.

But no amount of fake snow can cover up China's lack of tradition in winter sports. Part of this is socioeconomic: Much of China's population is poor by developed-world standards, and the equipment costs of winter sports tend to be prohibitive. 

Another issue is the peculiar nature of how sports function in China. Most top Chinese athletes—think basketball's Yao Ming—are selected from a young age and placed in state-run sports academies, where they receive extensive training in addition to receiving an education. Traditionally, China has centered its attention on summer sports like table tennis, swimming, and gymnastics, rather than sports like skiing, ice skating, and hockey. In recent years, skiing has become a popular sport among China's wealthy—but much of the population remains unable to take part.

Then there's China's political climate, which, if anything, has grown more repressive since 2008. In the past seven years, the Chinese government has banned Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and has restricted speech on the social networks it allows to operate at all. Imagining an Olympics where athletes and spectators are cut off from Facebook is difficult in 2015—and may be even less plausible in 2022. For the second time in 14 years, the IOC has awarded the games to a country with a poor human-rights record.

"The 2008 Beijing Games have put an end—once and for all—to the notion that these Olympics are a 'force for good,'" Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, wrote at the time.

Kazakhstan is little better. The country is a classic post-Soviet autocracy, one where Nursultan Nazarbayev has ruled without opposition since independence in 1991. But Almaty, its largest city and former capital, nonetheless had several advantages over Beijing. It's an international winter-sports destination and already possesses the infrastructure Beijing will have to build from scratch. Almaty's plan to hold every event within a 20-mile radius of the Olympic village would have made it the most compact games in three decades. And, not least, the city has ample natural snow—a point Almaty's planners made repeatedly in its promotional materials.

Almaty took the bad news in stride Friday, and expressed a desire to bid for the games in the future. But is hosting the Olympics worth it? China dazzled the world in 2008 with state-of-the-art Olympic venues like the "Bird's Nest" stadium and the Water Cube, but seven years later, these structures remain underutilized and burdened with debt. In order to prepare for the 2022 games, Beijing will again construct many new venues—making it questionable the city will be able to finance the event within the confines of its $3.066 billion budget.

For China, though, the Olympics have always been about more than money. In 2001, Beijing's victory in obtaining the '08 games sparked wild nationwide celebrations and a sense that the country had "arrived." This time, however, the response was far more tepid.

"We are not that enthusiastic about it because it is not the Summer Olympics but only the Winter Olympics," Wu Xiaowen, an accountant in Beijing, told the Times. "We don't play or watch those games."

[Duque de Bragança]

Euro 2016: France
Euro 2020: Twelve different countries

Getting tickets for the Euro 2016 seems hard though Most go to sponsors, as with World Cups. Platini will change that of course   
As for Euro 2020, that's Platini for you, again.

[Monoriu]

There is a very strong cultural preference that places academic pursuits above sports in China.  The best students are supposed to be bookworms.  Only bummers do sports.  If a student proclaims that he is the best basketball player in his school, he'll be looked down upon.  The entire school basketball team in my high school consisted of the worst students who cause trouble for the school.  Good students play musical instruments.  Only those who have failed their studies and are too poor will be taken in by the state sports institutions. 

I won't worry about cost or snow.  China has the money and determination to do a good job.  The financial cost is not material to Beijing. 

[Eddie Teach]

If a student proclaims that he is the best basketball player in his school, he'll be looked down upon.

Same here. Prove it on the court, hotshot.

[jimmy olsen]

Why does Brazil rate a smile and South Korea doesn't?

Feels like a "meh" location for Winter Games.

It's mountainous, snowy and near Seoul. What more could you want?