Top Olympic Bid Stories of 2013: #4 Six Cities To Challenge For 2022 Olympic Winter Games

By end-of-day November 14th, six cities had come forward to submit applications to host the Olympic Winter Games in 2022.

Almaty Kazakhstan, Beijing China, Krakow Poland, Lviv Ukraine, Oslo Norway and Stockholm Sweden all met the deadline to enter the race and along with a cash deposit they will be expected to submit an initial questionnaire response by March 14, 2014.

The quantity of applications must have been a relief to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Executive Board who have been working to increase the appeal of hosting the Olympic Winter Games. For the previous Winter Games bid, only three bidders came forward to host the 2018 Games forcing the IOC to allow all three bids to the final round, even though the city of Annecy didn’t measure up to the required benchmarks. The French city struggled later in the campaign and garnered only seven of 95 votes, one of the worst showings in decades.

Just days prior to the deadline, a potential seventh candidate was forced to drop its bid after losing a referendum required to approve it. The city of Munich, after coming second for 2018 was a clear frontrunner to host the Games in 2022 before voters turned against the plans.

Munich was trying to be the first city to host both the Summer and Winter version of the Games, but with Beijing in the race, the Chinese capital is now poised to take that honour.

Almaty last bid for the 2014 Games, Stockholm bid for the 2004 Games while Oslo hosted the Winter Games in 1952 before bidding again for 1968.