Almaty Wants To Stage A Low Cost Winter Olympics If Selected

KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 (Bernama) -- Almaty, one of the two frontrunners to host the 2022 Winter Olympics want to ensure the cost of hosting the Games is maintained at a minimum level, said its Mayor Akhmetzan Yessimov. "In terms of venues for the Games, 70 per cent of the venues are ready and available. These venues have been successfully tested through numerous international competitions. "As one of the bidding cities, we are implementing the Olympic Agenda 2020 in keeping the Games low. Based on IOC members assessment visits to Almaty in February this year, they recognised that 70 per cent of our venues are ready," Yessimov told reporters. Yessimov stressed out that Almaty had the money to pay for the Games' expenses and the 2022 Winter Olympic Games bid was based on a low-cost strategy because most of the venues and infrastructure had already been built. "Kazakhstan has the financial strength to deliver a great Winter Games without spending tens of billions of dollars," Yessimov said. Under the new IOC Agenda 2020, it introduced a range of new rules to make it cheaper for countries to bid and host the Olympics. Meanwhile, Almaty 2022 bid vice chairman Andrey Kryukov added that there would be no new venues build at the mountain zone. "Hosting the Games not only means for sports but also for our future. It is our long term strategy which is to position Kazakhstan as one of the top global economies by 2050. "The 2022 Winter Olympic Games will help Kazakhstan to showcase the amazing progress that our country has made," he said. Under the slogan "Keeping it Real," Almaty has emphasised its natural snow coverage and compactness as most venues are within half an hour's travel through the Alpine scenery. "Our concept is based on existing winter sport venues, not venues which will be modified from summer to winter sports venues. It's real winter sports venues which exist in our town. "Our town is a real winter town with a real winter sports culture, real nature, real mountains and real snow," he added. Almaty, who applied to bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics but failed to make it to the list of short listed candidate cities will host the Winter Universiade, scheduled from Jan 28 to Feb 8, 2017. --BERNAMA