Beijing has won its bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. This means that the Chinese Capital City will be the first location to host both the Summer and the Winter Olympic Games.

International Olympic Committee has announced that they made the decision to award the hosting rights to Beijing on Friday, July 31. The announcement was made on the IOC's official website. The organization's President, Thomas Bach, confirmed that the decision was reached after a voting session was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Like Us on Facebook

Beijing had been in contention to host the Winter Olympics against Almaty, the capital of the neighboring country of Kazakhstan.  The two cities were the only ones left in the running after other hopefuls like Oslo (Norway), Stockholm (Sweden) and Munich (Germany) all backed out of their bids. In the IOC session, Beijing received 44 votes and edged out Almaty's 40 votes. The contract to stage the games was reportedly signed immediately after the voting was completed.

Beijing has some experience over Kazakhstan after having already hosted the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The event gave birth to several high-profile infrastructure projects like the Bird's Nest Stadium and the Water Cube.

For the Winter Games, the ice events will be held in the city proper but snow-based events will be held in the town of Zhangjiakou in Heibei Province. This means that snow sports competitors would have to travel 190 miles northwest of Beijing to reach their competition venues.

According to a report by CNN, the IOC appears to have been left with little choice. Other cities who may have had the capability to stage the games have shied away from the opportunity due to the mounting costs of staging the games. Beijing's proposed budget for the 2022 games is a whopping 1.5 billion US dollars. It's a lot but it is significantly less than the money spent on previous editions of the event.

The most recent Winter Games held in Sochi, Russia in 2014 reportedly cost approximately US $ 50 billion. The summer games in Athens in 2004, cost Greece US $ 11 billion. Facing such costs, many cities have been pressured by their residents to back out.

Nevertheless, the IOC statement declares that Beijing is confident that they will "either break even or make a profit" from the venture. 

Tags2022 Winter Olympics, Almaty, Kazakhstan, winter games, Beijing Olympics, Sochi Winter Olympics, International Olympic Committee