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The Almaty 2022 bid delegation readies to make their key technical presentation to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) this next week in Lausanne. Almaty is competing against Beijing, China to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
After the publication of the IOC Evaluation Report made public by the IOC on Monday, the Almaty team said in a statement that they were inspired by the report noting the meaning of the official slogan, "Keeping it Real" in all aspects of the Almaty plan. They also drove home the fact that the entire country, all levels of Government and the sports family of Kazakhstan back the bid.
Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, noted on the bid, "Kazakhstan has been pursuing our Olympic dream for many years, in fact this is our second bid for the Winter Games.
"We have invested heavily in winter sport for the past fifteen years to increase our venue capacity and our hosting experience. In 2011, Almaty hosted The Asian Winter Games, and we will host the Winter Universiade in 2017.
"This is the best test of our readiness to host the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Almaty 2022 represents a great step forward for the people of Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region; a region that has never hosted the Olympic Games. Almaty and all of Kazakhstan are looking forward to showing the world our hospitability, diversity and uniqueness".
Almaty will be represented at the IOC meetings by Prime Minister of Kazakhstan and Chairman of the Almaty 2022 Bid Committee, Karim Massimov.
The team also counts the Mayor of Almaty, Akhmetzhan Yessimov, the President of the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Temirkhan Dosmukhambetov, the Minister of Culture and Sport, Arystanbek Mukhamediuly, the Vice Minister of Culture and Sport, Saken Mussaibekov, the Vice Chairman of Almaty 2022 Bid,Andrey Kryukov, the Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee, Timur Dossymbetov, Sochi 2014 Olympic medalist, Denis Ten and recently appointed IOC Athletes Entourage Committee Member and Chairwoman of the Olympic Council of Asia Women and Sports Commission, Natalya Sipovich.
Andrey Kryukov, Vice Chairman of Almaty 2022 Bid Committee, said, "We are on the final stretch of this exciting race. The successful visit of the Evaluation Commission in February was accompanied by incredible winter weather and lots of fresh, pure snow.
"We worked hard to improve the concept based on the recommendations we received from Chairman Zhukov and his great team and reduced our operational budget by over half a million dollars to improve our already excellent plan. And this plan is what we will present to the IOC membership and the representatives of the International Federation on June 9".
"We know we have a great offer for the Olympic Movement - the most efficient and convenient Winter Games concept in over thirty years. 70% of our venues are ready today and 80 % will be ready by 2017 for the Universiade. Almaty is a safe choice in terms of venues and infrastructure. We feel like a team in the hockey final of the Olympics now, fully concentrated, motivated and very much looking forward to present our wonderful city and the nature surrounding it to the IOC membership".
Bid Committee member Natalya Sipovich was recently nominated to the IOC Athletes Entourage Committee and she said, "I am honored by this appointment and can assure the IOC and the Olympic Athletes of my full commitment to contribute to the important work of the Commission. As well as being an honor for me it is an honor for my nation. Kazakhstan is a sporting nation committed to the ideals of the Olympic Movement. We applaud the Agenda 2020 initiatives and are committed to follow the IOC's lead on these matters".
The IOC will choose their host city for the 2022 Olympics on July 31st in Kuala Lumpur at the official IOC session.
Source: sportsfeatures.com Photo: Almaty is also readying to host the Universiade in 2017 © Almaty 2022