Beijing, China will host the 2022 Winter Olympics after beating Almaty, Kazakhstan’s bid at the International Olympic Committee’s latest session.
That will make Beijing the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics, per CNN. Beijing hosted the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in which Michael Phelps won his record 8 gold medals in the pool.
Swimming won’t be featured at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, but the IOC’s selection does highlight a trend in major athletic competitions, which now seem to be heading to the continent of Asia at an astounding rate.
Besides Beijing’s two Olympics, Asia will also host the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Within swimming, specifically, a huge number of major events have been heading to the continent.
Shanghai, China had the 2011 World Championships. Both iterations of the Summer Youth Olympic Games have taken place in Asia, with the inaugural 2010 Games in Singapore and the 2014 version in Nanjing, China.
Gwangju, South Korea just wrapped up hosting the World University Games, and will host the 2019 World Championships as well. Doha, Qatar hosted last winter’s Short Course World Championships, and will be in the hunt for the 2021 or 2023 long course world events. And after Short Course Worlds heads to Canada in 2016, it’ll return to Asia for the next two meets, in Hangzhou, China in 2018 and Abu Dhabi, UAE in 2020.
Speaking of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai hosted the 2013 World Junior Swimming Championships, and Singapore will host the next installment of that meet in 2015.
(Regarding the 2015 World Championships and 2013 World University Games, we won’t count Russia within Asia, though you technically could – the typical dividing line between Europe and Asia is the Ural Mountains, which run through the country of Russia. The majority of Russian land area is on the Asian side, but the vast majority of its population – including the city of Kazan – is in the European half. The same goes for Istanbul, Turkey, which hosted the 2012 Short Course World Championships.)
This is perhaps a more interesting trend when taken alongside the continents that aren’t hosting any major events. The United States is a notoriously rare host for major swim meets (the last world championships it hosted were in Indianapolis in 2004), and Mexico recently backed out of hosting duties at the 2017 World Championships, leaving Canada as the only major hosting contender in North America.
And the ugly collapse of the Boston 2024 Olympic bid suggests public support might not exist for a U.S. Olympic bid anytime soon. Toronto, Canada has publicly speculated on a 2024 bid, but are behind the proverbial 8-ball in getting their bid ready for the IOC’s September deadline.
Meanwhile, South America has a handful of major events on its upcoming resume, including the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. But Rio 2016’s struggles with polluted sailing and open water race courses has cast a bad light on their hosting ability as well.
Africa hasn’t hosted a major world swimming event in years, leaving Europe and Asia as the main bid-suitors for major meets, with an Australian host city perhaps thrown into the mix every now and then.
The IOC is in a bad position having to pick from small fields and going to the same continent for three Olympics in a row (Korea, japan and china). Where is that well greased CEO/attorney type Steven whatever his name was complaining that the Asian teams will have an advantage ? I am sure he would if the games were in North America!
So let’s get this straight. After the 2016 Olympics, every major event excluding the 2018 YOG, will be held in Asia or the Middle East. Are the IOC and FINA picking up that 3 consecutive Olympics, 2 LCM Worlds and 2 SCM worlds will be held on one continent?! Wake up! The rest of the world is here too.? I’m not mad, I’m just saying that the IOC usually picks different continents in a cycle that doesn’t change much: Asia, Europe, Rest of World. This is not always like this, but this is how it usually lays out.
What is your problem? Between 1976 -2010 Usa/Can held 7 /17 Summer & Winter Games.
Count them – Montreal Lake Placid Los Angeles Calgary Atlanta Salt Lake City Vancouver .
Once upon a time there was an Olympic tavern
Where we used to laugh away the hours
Now my friend you’re older but no wiser ….
Ah – those were the days my friend
You thought they’d never end
Lalahlahla lala lala lalalal lall oh lahlahlahlaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
You forgot Lake Placid in 1932 and Squaw Valley in 1960 for the Winter Olympics.
1976-2010 7 in 34 years corresponds to Breastrokeswimmers whine about all the games going to asia now .
If we count all for Asia – 1964 1972 1988 1998 2008 2018 2020 2022 so that will be 8 games in 58 years . ( Tokyo Sapporo Nagano Seoul Beijing Korea Tokyo Beijing ) 8/58 years.
So Beijing won the bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics. As a big fan of alpine ski racing, where the heck are they gonna hold the ski races? I know they have a few ski areas, but none of them appear to fit the FIS regulations. They are small areas and China is not exactly an alpine ski racing hotbed either.
I guess they better get busy building some new ski areas on some big mountains someplace. This will be interesting…….
South Korea is also hosting the 2018 Olympics… I would love a Reno/Tahoe bid.
Reno/Tahoe would be building from scratch… better a 2.0 Calgary or Salt Lake City.
SCM world championships in Indianapolis in 2004, not 2014.
Beijing, a great winter sports city, as we all know it. Pathetic once again.
Next time they give these winter olympic games to Qatar. The downhill will be held indoor. Help!
Typo! Good catch. Glad to see you read all the way through, Bobo 😉
I think the IOC would have honestly preferred Oslo or Munich for 2022, but neither city’s citizens understandably wanted to get stuck with the bill, and, given the last two cities standing, they kind of shrugged and went with a country that they knew would be reliable for venue construction, even if the snow for the ski events has to be somehow dyed white to hide pollution.
Reno-Lake Tahoe is supposedly interested in a 2026 Winter Games bid, and I think it could work well as long as the host city is okay with displacing the gamblers for 3-4 weeks from its existing hotel stock.