Ukrainian City Of Lviv Withdraws 2022 Winter Olympics Bid Due To Political, Security Crisis

The Ukrainian city of Lviv "withdrew its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics on Monday, becoming the third contender to drop out of the race for a Games that no one seems to want," according to the AP. Lviv "pulled out because of the continuing political and security crisis in Ukraine." Lviv officials said that "they would now focus on bidding for the 2026 Winter Games instead." The decision to withdraw "had been widely expected" and followed talks between Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk and IOC President Thomas Bach. The announcement came exactly one week before the IOC "selects a short list of finalists" for the 2022 Games. Three cities "remain in contention: Almaty, Kazakhstan; Beijing, and Oslo." With Lviv out, the IOC exec board "is likely to retain all three and not cut any of the candidates." The host city "will be selected by the full IOC in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 31, 2015" (AP, 6/30). XINHUA reported Lviv's withdrawal "follows earlier pullouts by Stockholm and Krakow, Poland" (XINHUA, 6/30).