LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) – Left with little choice after the withdrawal of three contenders, the International Olympic Committee retained the three remaining cities Monday in the troubled race for the 2022 Winter Games.
Almaty, Kazakhstan; Beijing, and Oslo made the list of finalists, as had been expected.
The IOC executive board approved all three as official candidate cities, sending them through to the final stage of the campaign, rather than cut the decimated field any further.
The cities must submit their detailed bid files to the IOC by next January. The host city will then be selected by the full IOC membership in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 31, 2015.
“The IOC is very happy to see three very different approaches with regard to the organization of the games,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. “This gives the IOC a choice among three diverse bids with different legacy plans, with different approaches, with different budgets.”