The International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the 2022 Winter Olympic Games to Chinese capital Beijing on Friday after a secret ballot of its 85 members in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Beijing won 44 votes against Kazakhstani city of Almaty's 40 with one abstention. The Chinese capital, which hosted the 2008 Olympics, will become the first city to host both the summer and winter Olympics after winning the hosting rights for the 2022 mega sports event, according to BBC.
"Just as with the Beijing 2008 Summer Games, the Olympic Family has put its faith in Beijing again to deliver the athlete-centred, sustainable and economical Games we have promised," the Beijing Bid Committee said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Chinese President Xi Jinpin promised a "fantastic and extraordinary Winter Olympics" in a congratulation letter to the Beijing 2022 bid delegation.
"All of you have made great efforts in the bid. I hope that with the support of all Chinese people, you keep on working hard to present a fantastic, extraordinary and excellent Winter Olympics," he said, according to Xinhua.
The South Korean city of Pyeongchang will host the 2018 Winter Olympics and Japan's Tokyo will host 2020 Summer Olympics.
Chinese rights groups, earlier this week, wrote open letters to the International Olympic Committee, urging it not to award 2022 Winter Olympics hosting rights to Beijing. They argued that China's human rights record had gone bad to worse since the 2008 Olympics, according to Al Jazeera America.
"We hope that you are aware by now that the 2008 Beijing Games did nothing to alleviate human rights abuses in China or enhance freedom," a rights group said in letter. "In fact the situation now in 2015 is far worse than when those games were awarded in 2001," the letter said.
Commentators have slammed IOC's decision to select Beijing as host because the Chinese capital lacks natural snow. Here are few reactions on twitter
Amazes me IOC even considering Beijing's Winter Olympics bid given the city will have to artificially create snow https://t.co/kks64wvHnC
— Jerome Taylor (@JeromeTaylor) July 30, 2015
The Winter Olympics in a city without snow. So Beijing will be making snow. Making. Snow. https://t.co/cYgDtIjn5M — Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) July 31, 2015
Great idea: Let's keep having the winter Olympics in places that barely recieve any snow.
— Dave Amirault (@ozskier) July 31, 2015
Beijing to host 2022 Olympics. When you can build stadiums as fast as China, who needs snow? https://t.co/VuZclxQsk1 pic.twitter.com/hD0MK36MxA — Slate (@Slate) July 31, 2015
In deciding where to have the 2022 Winter Olympics, the IOC decided no snow was no problem, @JulietMacur explains. https://t.co/3FxsdhbHFA
— NYT Sports (@NYTSports) July 31, 2015
12-2 top 8. 2022 Winter Olympics goes to a city with no snow. It's like having World Cup in a place that's 120 degr...oh this is embarassing — St. Paul Saints (@StPaulSaints) August 1, 2015
