Yao Ming, Beijing Mayor to Speak During Final Olympic Presentation Friday
Today's the day. After a 21-month campaign that saw all but one of the other candidate cities drop, on Friday Beijing and partner city Zhangjiakou will make a final presentation before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) votes to choose the host of the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Facing only the former capital of Kazakhstan, Almaty, as a rival, the bid seems Beijing's to lose, with only one major factor working against it: weather. While Almaty features snow even in the summer, Beijing has struggled to produce enough of the white stuff naturally, especially during the past two years. No other Olympic Winter Games host city has ever had such a problem with the event's key ingredient as Beijing.
Voting will begin sometime Friday afternoon, after both Almaty and Beijing have a chance to make final presentations. Beijing will offer up 11 speakers: Liu Yandong, Chinese Vice Premier, head of the delegation of the Beijing 2022 Bid Committee; Liu Peng, Minister of the General Administration of Sport of China, President of the Chinese Olympic Committee; Wang Anshun, President of the Beijing 2022 Bid Committee, Mayor of Beijing; Yu Zaiqing, Vice President of the International Olympic Committee, Vice President of the Chinese Olympic Committee; Zhang Haidi, President of the National Paralympic Committee of China; Hou Liang, Deputy Secretary General of Beijing 2022, Mayor of Zhangjiakou; Li Lingwei, world badminton champion and IOC member; Yang Yang, two-time Olympic champion in short track and IOC member; Yao Ming, famous basketball player, Beijing 2022 Bid Ambassador; Li Nina, two-time Olympic medalist and three-time world champion in freestyle skiing, Beijing 2022 Bid Ambassador; Zhang Li, Deputy Director of Venue Planning and Technology Department of Beijing 2022. Yu Zaiqing will moderate the presentation.
“Throughout the previous months of the Bid campaign, Beijing has been increasingly gaining momentum and excitement in Beijing and Zhangjiakou keeps building every day," said Beijing Mayor Wang Anshun on Thursday, in a statement.
“We believe Beijing 2022 is the right partner for the IOC at this crucial time of transformation, playing our part to support the Olympic Agenda 2020 principles that are setting the foundation for the Olympic Movement to continue to grow sustainably to 2022 and beyond. We have proven our ability to work with the Olympic Family to host spectacular Games, which helps us to offer guaranteed delivery of a successful Games in 2022. We have the passionate and experienced people who know what it takes to stage a Games and we are ready to start tomorrow. We offer the proven capability to host the Games and much more: the chance for winter sports to reach millions of new people and grow into the future.”
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Photo: Beijing 2022
