Bach expects "good competition" between Beijing and Almaty in 2022 bid

Both Beijing and Almaty are strong candidates who will have a good competition between them in the race for hosting the 2022 Winter Games, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said on Tuesday.

Both Beijing and Almaty handed in their bidding reports on Tuesday to the IOC.

The IOC will send its Evaluation Commission to visit each city between February and March. The election of the 2022 host city by the IOC Session will take place in Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia on July 31, 2015.

To Bach, each bid has distinct characters.

"We have two very strong candidates with two very different approaches," said Bach. "We have Almaty as a winter sport center with many facilities already existing and a great tradition in winter sport for decades with world renowned sports facilities and we have Beijing with a vision to make winter sports accessible for hundreds of millions of people in Beijing and the region, so two really fascinating projects."

"It will be really good competition between these two candidates," he said.

Beijing, the 2008 Olympics host, is bidding to become the first city ever to hold both the summer and winter Games. If it wins the bid, some of the 2022 venues will be set up in Zhangjiakou, a Hebei province city some 200 kilometers northwest of Beijing. Ice sports will be staged in Beijing while snow events will be held in Zhangjiakou.