Almaty rules out co-hosting 2022 Winter Olympics

Almaty is not happy with the proposal of moving events to Astana

Almaty (Kazakhstan), Feb 15 (IANS)

The Almaty 2022 winter Olympics bidding committee has ruled out the possibility to move some events out of the city. Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev had suggested some events would be moved to Astana, the capital city over 1,200 kilometres to the north-west, reported Xinhua.

Nazarbayev gave the suggestion after the Olympic Agenda 2020 plan, which was passed at the 127th IOC session in December last year, opened the doors for co-hosting the Olympics to take advantage of pre-existing facilities and reduce the financial burden on bid cities.

But, when asked Saturday if any changes to planned venue locations could be made, Almaty 2022 vice-chairman Andrey Kryukov ruled out any chance of this happening.

"This is a serious question, but I can tell you straight," he said. "The Olympic concept of Almaty 2022 is all in one city. Only Almaty."

Kryukov gave the remarks at a press conference following an IOC inspection of the bidding city.

The IOC evaluation commission, led by Russian IOC member Alexander Zhukov, had closed-door briefings before touring some of the venues proposed for the 2022 Olympics, including Ak Bulak Nordic Arena, where biathlon and cross country is planned, Ak Bulak Olympic Village, and the Tabagan cluster, site of Alpine and freestyle skiing.

Kryukov described day one of the IOC inspection as "a great experience for us".

"They have seen it all with their own eyes," said Kryukov.

Asked what concerns or challenges the IOC had identified for Almaty, Kryukov said that there were a lot of questions on sustainability "and we have very good answers and I feel commission is satisfied fully with that".