Almaty 2022 rules out co-hosting plan


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".

  

Top Stories


Leave a Comment

Title: Almaty 2022 rules out co-hosting plan



You have 2000 characters left.

Disclaimer:

Please write your correct name and email address. Kindly do not post any personal, abusive, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, discriminatory or unlawful or similar comments. Daijiworld.com will not be responsible for any defamatory message posted under this article.

Please note that sending false messages to insult, defame, intimidate, mislead or deceive people or to intentionally cause public disorder is punishable under law. It is obligatory on Daijiworld to provide the IP address and other details of senders of such comments, to the authority concerned upon request.

Hence, sending offensive comments using daijiworld will be purely at your own risk, and in no way will Daijiworld.com be held responsible.