The International Olympic Committee decides Friday which city will be the venue for the 2022 winter Olympics — Beijing, China, or Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The committee is holding its 128th Session in Kuala Lumpur through August 3.

Beijing hosted the summer Olympics in 2008 and says it will reuse many of those venues for the winter Games. Kazakhstan has never hosted an Olympics.

China is seen as the safer choice, offering repeat venues and good sponsorship opportunities. But Kazakhstan boasts better weather for winter sports and a better prospect of competition on natural snow rather than the manufactured stuff, as has been necessary in some recent winter competitions. Almaty’s proponents also note that Almaty is a compact location, whereas some venues in China are as far as 160 kilometers away from Beijing. 

Kazakhstan would also be one of the smaller nations to ever host the Games, in contrast to China, one of the world’s largest and most populous countries.

But both nations have been criticized for their poor records on human rights, and observers are split on whether giving a nation the Games exposes its rights record to closer scrutiny or simply rewards its failures.

This year’s contest for the Games is unusual in that there are only two contenders. Four other cities, all from Europe, have dropped out of the running, citing the high cost of hosting the Games and low levels of public interest. Escalating security concerns have also made the Games a less attractive event for potential host cities.
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