LONDON (AP) ― The race for the 2022 Winter Olympics is on a six-city contest featuring two former Summer Games hosts, a cross-border bid and a pair of candidates from the former Soviet Union.
Notably missing are any contenders from the traditional Alpine countries of Europe, where voters in Switzerland and Germany rejected proposed bids because of concerns over high costs and the environment.
The International Olympic Committee released the official list of bid cities, hours after the midnight deadline for applications passed.
As expected, the candidates ― all previously announced in their own countries ― are Almaty, Kazakhstan; Beijing; Krakow, Poland; Lviv, Ukraine; Oslo, Norway; and Stockholm.
Krakow is bidding jointly with Slovakia, which would hold some of the snow events in Jasna in the Tatras mountains.
Five of the six countries have bid for the Winter Games before, with Ukraine the only newcomer.
Stockholm or Beijing would become the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics. Stockholm held the 1912 Games and the equestrian competition for the 1952 Melbourne Olympics. Oslo hosted the 1952 Winter Olympics, and the Norwegian town of Lillehammer staged the 1994 Games.
The confirmation of the bid cities marks the start of a two-year campaign that will end with the selection of the host city in July 2015.
The IOC said the field “includes a strong mix of both traditional and developing winter sports markets.”
The race has twice as many candidates as the previous winter campaign, when the South Korean resort of PyeongChang defeated Munich and Annecy, France, for the 2018 Games.
“These cities and their supporters clearly understand the benefits that hosting the games can have and the long lasting legacy that a games can bring to a region,” IOC president Thomas Bach said of the 2022 bid cities.
The IOC did not mention that potential 2022 bids from two major European winter sports countries were turned down in recent referendums.
Last week, voters in Bach’s home country of Germany said no to another bid from Munich, citing financial and environmental concerns. In March, Switzerland dropped plans for a bid from St. Moritz, the 1928 and 1948 host, when voters in the region refused to support it amid worries over costs and disruption.
