Picking the host city with least risks shapes up as the challenge for IOC

The host city for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games will be elected at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31. The vote is as important for the bid cities - Almaty and Beijing, as for the IOC itself, because it could set the stage for the Olympic bids for years to come.

The 2022 bid had started as a heated campaign involving six cities. But Stockholm (Sweden), Krakow (Poland), Lviv (Ukraine) and Oslo (Norway) pulled out of the bid process midway. While each city had their own reasons, common issues were lack of public confidence in financing and concern for post-Games "white elephants".

Due to the serial withdrawal of the 2022 Games candidate cities, the IOC introduced Olympic Agenda 2020, a series of reforms aimed to make bidding for and hosting the Games more sustainable, affordable and beneficial for cities. Most importantly, the Olympic Agenda 2020 advocates sustainable Games, which means maximum use of existing or temporary facilities and allowing Olympic Games events in more than one city and even one country rather than building expensive white elephant facilities in the host city.

The Beijing 2022 bid is embracing the Olympic Agenda 2020 principles through its concepts of athlete-centered, sustainable and economical Games. The post-Games legacies of four iconic venues from Beijing 2008 - National Stadium (known as Bird's Nest), National Aquatics Center (known as Water Cube), Wukesong Center and the China National Convention Center - are all prime examples of how these concepts have already been in motion even before the launch of the Beijing 2022 bid. Over the past seven years, these four venues have grown and developed into the "go-to" multi-purpose arenas for Beijing's biggest events, fulfilling the principles outlined in the Agenda 2020 and setting a new standard of sustainability for the future of the Olympic Movement.

To attract 300 million people to ice and snow sports, the Chinese Olympic Committee has been implementing numerous winter sports promotional programs with dedicated budgets. Having so many people participating in winter sports is an unprecedented historical opportunity for the sustainability of the Olympic Movement and winter sports. And with the rise of winter sports fever in China, hosting the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympics would undoubtedly cement these venues' futures as the hosts of tomorrow's biggest global winter sports events.

"In 2008, together with the IOC, we created Games that reflected the Olympic values. We honored our commitment then. Today, we make new promises, and we stand before you with our commitment to deliver them," Yu Zaiqing, IOC Vice President and Vice President of the Beijing 2022 Bid Committee, told IOC fellow colleagues last month in Laussane.

"In this constantly changing world with diverse choices, our passion for the Olympic Movement and our determination to honr our commitments will never change."

Beijing is ready to become the first city to host both Summer and Winter Olympic Games, but is the IOC ready for history-making? Endi