Beijing was one of the three cities, along with Almaty and Oslo, selected as official candidates by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board during their meeting in Lausanne earlier this month. 

In comparison with the other two, the Chinese capital has been extremely quiet so far, with their attempt to host the Winter Games for the first time appearing to attract little publicity, either at home or overseas. 

It is therefore a welcome boost that Zhang, who won her country's only gold medal in long track speed skating when triumphing in the 1,000 metre event at Sochi 2014, has lent her support.

"First of all, I really hope Beijing and Zhangjiakou can have a successful bid," the 26-year-old said.

"As you know, I won the first gold for China's speed skating team at the Sochi Olympics and I believe this was due to the help of many people.

"I believe we will achieve our goal in the bidding process because so many people in our country are putting in great efforts.

"I am now training very hard for the Pyeongchang Winter Games, and I will continue to put in my effort to help the development of speed skating in China."

Almaty have been more vocal in publicising their bid, using events such as a mass bike ride last month ©Almaty 2022



Beijing's bid, which is in conjunction with the nearby city of Zhangjiakou in which mountain events will be held, is widely viewed as having been launched with an eye to a more serious attempt to host the 2026 edition of the Games four years later.

But in a tumultuous contest in which three of the other initial contenders - Stockholm, Kraków and Lviv - have all withdrawn from the fledgling race, the city appears to realise that their best opportunity could lie in the earlier edition.

This is particularly because, if the Kazakh city Almaty was awarded the 2022 Games to follow the 2018 edition in Pyeongchang, this would mean that the last two Winter Olympics will have taken place on Asian soil, meaning the IOC would be less likely to consider China in 2026.

Although Beijing received stronger scores by the IOC Working Group study conducted ahead of the Executive Board meeting, Almaty remains the front-runner due a strong campaign so far.

This has been boosted by the appeal of taking the Games to a new location, the number of existing facilities, and the success of the 2011 Asian Winter Games, held jointly in Almaty and Astana. 

The campaign of Oslo meanwhile, has faced a backlog of vocal opposition within Norway, with the Norwegian Government yet to officially endorse the bid.

They will not decide whether to until the autumn, and if they opt not to, this would represent a certain death knell for the attempt to bring the Games back to Oslo for the first time since 1952.

The Progress Party, the minority group in the governing coalition led by Norwegian Finance Minister Siv Jensen, has already announced its opposition to the bid, with Unge Venstre, the youth wing of the Liberal Party, among the latest to oppose the attempt.

But on the other hand, the leaders of both the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, and the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprises have recently come out in support of the bid, and Oslo 2022 remain confident a groundswell of support is growing. 

Despite the popularity of winter sports, there has been huge opposition against Oslo 2022 ©Oslo 2022



The next stage of the two-year process to decide the host city will now come on January 7 next year, when the Candidature Files from the three cities will be due.

IOC President Thomas Bach will then appoint an Evaluation Commission made up of IOC members and experts to visit each Candidate City in February and March and prepare a technical risk assessment to assist IOC members in electing the host city.

A final decision will then be made by the membership in the vote held during the IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 31 - exactly one year from now. 

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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