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 The Chinese capital beat Kazakhstan's Almaty in a secret ballot of
85 IOC members held at a convention center in downtown Kuala Lumpur
in a decision that drew immediate criticism from human rights
activists.
The ballot was conducted twice, first electronically and then by
paper after it was discovered the electronic system had
malfunctioned.
The IOC said Beijing won a surprisingly close vote, 44-40, with one
abstention.
“Just as with the Beijing 2008 Summer Games, the Olympic Family has
put its faith in Beijing again to deliver the athlete-centered,
sustainable and economical Games we have promised," the Beijing Bid
Committee said in a statement.
"This will be a memorable event at the foot of the Great Wall for
the whole Olympic Family, the athletes and the spectators that will
further enhance the tremendous potential to grow winter sports in
our country, in Asia and around the world."
Despite concerns about a lack of natural snow in the city's distant
mountains, and protests from human rights groups, Beijing had been
the clear favorite to win the vote after it successfully hosted the
2008 Summer Olympics.
The high-powered Chinese delegation assured IOC members that Beijing
was the safe choice because it had already proved it could stage the
Games and said it would take winter sports into the backyard of the
world's most populated country.
EMOTIONAL APPEAL
The bid team from Almaty tugged at the IOC's heartstrings, urging
the committee, which includes sports administrators, captains of
industry and even royalty, to resist the temptation to go back to
China.
Instead, it called on the IOC to send a positive message to smaller
developing countries that they too could host the world's greatest
sporting events.
Kazakhstan Prime Minister Karim Massimov delivered a powerful,
moving speech, but the IOC, grappling with the effects of a global
economic crisis and facing dwindling interest from countries wanting
to host the Olympics, opted for Beijing.
"I think both bids were viable but Beijing has won," former IOC
President Jaques Rogge told Reuters.
"It's symbolic and it is a measure of confidence... it's a good day
for the Olympics."
However, New York-based Human Rights Watch group, which was highly
critical of both countries during the bid process, was unimpressed
by the decision.
“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,” HRW's China director Sophie Richardson said in a
statement.
“In choosing China to host another Games, the IOC has tripped on a
major human rights hurdle.”
The IOC has been criticized by human rights groups for years, most
notably after awarding the 2008 Summer Games to Beijing and the 2014
Winter Games to Russia's Sochi.
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It has since added anti-discrimination clauses to the host city
contract.
IOC President Thomas Bach, who formally announced Beijing as the
winner when he pulled the city's name from an envelope, said the IOC
was limited to what it could do outside of the sporting context.
"Outside the context of the Olympic Games the IOC has to respect the
laws of sovereign states," Bach said in his opening address to the
Congress.
"The IOC is not a world government. Governments have their own
responsibilities."
'KEEPING IT REAL'
The decision to go with China again reaffirmed the shifting
power-base of world sport, with East Asia now poised to host three
successive Olympics.
South Korea's Pyeongchang will host the 2018 Winter Games and Tokyo
the 2020 Summer Olympics.
But the choice, while expected, was more a reflection of the
economic problems in the rest of the world rather than an
overwhelming desire to stick with the same region.
The four European candidates who originally entered the 2022 race
all dropped out, citing concerns about the escalating costs of
staging the Olympics, prompting the IOC to introduce a raft of
reforms to cut costs and attract more bidders in the future.
Kazakhstan, a former Soviet state, pitched itself as a model for
future hosts, embracing all the new reforms with a low-cost bid in a
city which already has most of the facilities in place after hosting
the 2011 Asian Winter Games.
Bidding to become the first majority Muslim country to stage the
Olympics, the oil-rich Central Asian country also provided
assurances that they had the money to pay for the Games.
"We're feeling ok. We did our best," said Andrey Kryukov, the vice
chairman of Almaty's bid team.
"Our bid is perfect.
"The decision has been done by the IOC... this is a competition,
somebody wins, somebody loses."
(Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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