Oslo Residents Vote In Favor Of 2022 Winter Olympics, Paralympics Bid

Oslo residents have voted in favor of bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, "the Norwegian capital hoping to bring the event back to the Nordic nation of five million for a third time," according to Gwaldys Fouche of REUTERS. With nearly all the votes counted by Monday night, 55% of Oslo voters supported the bid in a city-wide referendum, "a big turnaround compared to earlier opinion polls that showed that high costs had turned many voters off." Only Almaty, Kazakhstan has formally applied to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, while Barcelona and Munich "are also considering bidding." Norway has hosted two Winter Olympics before, Oslo in '52 and Lillehammer in '94, and said that "it would rely primarily on existing facilities" for the '22 event. The IOC "is expected to select the host city" in '15 (REUTERS, 9/10).