Beijing's edge in 2022 Winter Olympics bid

The IOC evaluation commission will visit Beijing from March 24 to 28 before a final decision is scheduled to be made at the IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31. Which city will be selected between Beijing and Almaty of Kazakhstan? For Beijing, the host city of 2008 Olympics, what's its advantages that can help it win the bid?

EXPERIENCE

The Beijing's 2008 Summer Olympics is a great success and also a great promotion for the Olympic Movement. The Olympics is staged in the world's most populous country, which alone can be counted as a remarkable achievement in the Olympics chronicle. The organization of the 2008 Games is persuasive and impressive for IOC to give its credit and confidence to the city once again.

The Beijing Olympics 2008 is tagged with "exclusive" in IOC's closing ceremony comments. What makes Beijing's chance tangible is last year's Youth Olympics in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province, where IOC president Thomas Bach and his colleagues had personally felt the Chinese enthusiasm for sports and the reliability of Chinese government in guaranteeing a successful sports tournament.

China's Lu Shengrong, former world badminton chief and IOC member for 1996-2001, is confident of Beijing's race for its second Olympics.

"I am optimistic," Lu said. "Beijing has an advantage, or experience, that any other cities don't."

Lu stressed the "smoothest communication and cooperation between the host city and the IOC in the Olympic history" during Beijing's preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

FACILITY

The 2008 Olympics leave Beijing not only the experience, but abundant facilities, which makes Beijing's preparation for the expected 2022 Winter Olympics already half done. As the capital city, Beijing's infrastructure, transportation, accommodation are more than capable of catering to the 2022 Olympics. For the stadia left from 2008 Olympics, including the Water Cube swimming center and the national indoor stadium, they can serve as 2022 venues and can meet most of the demands for ice sports, like figure skating, speed skating, ice hockey, curling etc. Beijing needs to build only one new stadium for speed skating.

The facility reutilization and budget saving is in comply with the IOC 2020 Agenda, which emphasizes budget control and Olympics relics. IOC President Thomas Bach had said that Beijing's vision complied with IOC's reforms after Beijing handed over its official bid.