IOC set to decide 2022 winter games

2015-07-31 02:13:30

The International Olympic Committee will vote in Kuala Lumpur on Friday on which city will host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Beijing is the hot favourite to be awarded the Winter Games, but protesters here and in many other places are urging the IOC to reject its bid. An alliance of concern groups and student unions, led by the Chinese University student union held a demonstration outside Olympic House - the Hong Kong Olympic Committee's headquarters - a day ahead of the IOC vote. The protesters said Beijing's recent crackdown on human rights lawyers violates Olympic principles. Four European cities dropped out of the running for the winter games. That means the only other city left in the running is Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan. International rights campaigners say increasingly it is only repressive regimes with poor human rights records who want to host these mega sporting events. They say these governments will do and say whatever they have to to win the right to host these games, but then fail to fulfill their promises. However, retired NBA star Yao Ming - who's one of those fronting up Beijing's campaign in Kuala Lumpur - says no country has a perfect human rights record. The former Houston Rockets centre said "that problem cannot be solved just like that."

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