No One Wants To Host The 2022 Winter Olympics

Only two options — two very bad options — remain for hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, now that every other city that put in a bid has since run screaming for the exits.

Since the Norwegian government effectively pulled Oslo’s bid by refusing any government money to offset the cost of hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, that narrows the field down to two cities, according to News Max.

The remaining possible 2022 Winter Olympics host sites are now Beijing, China, and Almaty, Kazakhstan, according to MSN. Neither country has a strong winter sports tradition, but what they lack in winter sports they make up for in human rights abuses. Further, Beijing is 120 miles from the nearest ski-able mountain. And Kazakhstan, through no fault of its own, is something of a butt of international jokes thanks largely to Borat. In 2012, according to this Inquisitr report, an international sporting event “accidentally” played the Borat theme song instead of the actual Kazakhstan national anthem for a Kazakh athlete.

Regardless, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said there will be no re-opening of the bidding process.

“The IOC is sticking to its commitments. We have issued the invitation for bidding. There is a clear and transparent procedure. We will follow this procedure with two candidates.”

Since receiving the initial bids for the 2022 Winter Olympics host city, all of the better options have dropped out. Stockholm, Krakow, Lviv (Ukraine), Munich, and St. Moritz (Switzerland) have all withdrawn their bids, for a variety of reasons. Yahoo Sports writer Dan Wetzel suggests that the IOC’s legacy of bribery, cronyism, and corruption was too off-putting by the bidding cities and their nations’ governments. Or perhaps they didn’t want to face the abandoned facilities, environmental damage, broken promises, and hefty bills that seem to follow every Olympics.

Regardless of which city is eventually chosen, the 2022 Winter Olympics will take place in Asia. This would mean that an Asian city will have hosted three consecutive Olympics Games; the 2018 Winter Olympics are scheduled for Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Tokyo will host the 2020 Summer Olympics. Normally, according to News Max, the IOC prefers to spread out the Games over the continents.

The host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics will be officially named in a ceremony from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 31, 2015.

[Images courtesy of: Merdaka-Online, Yahoo Sports]