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France's former Prime Minister Raffarin congrats Beijing on winning bid for 2022 Winter Games

Xinhua, July 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

Former Prime Minister of France Jean-Pierre Raffarin expressed Friday his compliments to Beijign after the Chinese capital having won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games and wished the next lucky city will be Paris.

"Congratulations to all my Chinese friends on winning the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Wishing Paris winning the bid for summer 2024 after Beijing," said the 67-year-old parliamentarian.

Earlier on Friday, Beijing beat Kazakhstan's Almaty in a two-candidate race to win 44 votes against 40 in the International Olympic Committee's 128th session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Chinese capital thus becomes the first city in history to host both summer and winter Games, after an "exceptional" Summer Olympic Games in 2008.

Paris officially announced to bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games late last month, following Rome, Boston and Hamburg with Budapest the next expected to enter the running.

The French capital, which last hosted the Olympics in 1924, narrowly missed out to London for staging the 2012 Games, following failed bids for the 2008 and 1992 editions respectively to Barcelona and Beijing.

The IOC will decide on the shorlist of the candidate cities in 2016, before select the host city in summer 2017. Endi