Beijing and Almaty on Monday "embarked on a frantic final lobbying campaign for the 2022 Winter Olympics ahead of a decision this week on the winner," according to the AFP. High level delegations from China and Kazakhstan are in Kuala Lumpur, where the IOC will hold a "secret ballot" on Friday to decide between the two rivals. Almaty has been "gaining ground in recent weeks against the Chinese capital," which has been considered the "overwhelming" favorite for several months. Beijing has "thrown its heavyweight lobbying power into securing the Games," highlighting its successful staging of the 2008 summer Olympics and its "deep pockets." But the oil rich Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan "also has cash" and has impressed with its promise of a "real" Olympics with all of the facilities and plenty of snow within 33 km of its former capital (AFP, 7/26). REUTERS' Gordeyeva & Solovyov reported many in Kazakhstan view the bid as "yet another vanity project of long-ruling President Nursultan Nazarbayev." Almaty, lying at the foothills of the snow-capped Tien Shan mountains, co-hosted the 2011 Asian Winter Games with the capital Astana and will host the 2017 Winter Universiade. The Olympics is a pet project of Nazarbayev, a 75-year-old former steelworker "who has ruled this country nation of 17.5 million with a strong hand for 26 years." The authorities hope the global sports event will "put the nation -- which is five times the size of France -- firmly on the map." Official optimism, however, "contrasts with pessimism among many Almaty residents." Saken Bektiyar, a painter aged 54, said, "The Olympic Games are needed only for those in power to demonstrate to the world that the country lives according to democratic standards, while in fact it has nothing to do with democracy" (REUTERS, 7/28).
IOC STILL EXPECTS U.S. BID: REUTERS' Karolos Grohmann reported the IOC remains confident the U.S. will deliver a bid to host the 2024 Summer Games "despite Boston's withdrawal from the race on Monday." IOC President Thomas Bach said, "For the IOC this was always about an American bid put forward by the United States Olympic Committee. This invitation phase is also an opportunity to
determine which city will eventually be chosen by a National Olympic
Committee. We are confident that USOC (U.S. Olympic Committee) will
choose the most appropriate city for a strong U.S. bid" (REUTERS, 7/28).
COLUMNIST: OLYMPICS 'DEAD': In London, Les Carpenter opined the reason Boston's residents did not want to be Athens "is the same reason the residents of Oslo or Krakow or Stockholm" do not "want to be Athens." Hosting an Olympics is "a corporate sinkhole sucking billions of dollars and a city's future into a bottomless abyss of excess." The Internet is clogged with slide shows of "empty, broken, useless stadiums built in the euphoria of a coming Olympics or World Cup then abandoned soon after, allowed to fill with weeds, rodents and other signs of human escape." After Rome, Paris, Hamburg and maybe Toronto or Doha -- all fighting to host the 2024 Games -- the list of Olympic hopefuls "may quickly dwindle until only bidders will be places like Beijing or Qatar or breakaway Soviet republic." These are places that will not "need to worry about local opposition when writing checks in the name of national pride." The concept of "getting one big city to compete against another, with each promising more extravagance is probably an old one." Fewer municipalities "will have the money to waste" (GUARDIAN, 7/28).
