Beijing awarded 2022 bash

Chinese capital to become first city to host Summer and Winter Games

Beijing was chosen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the 2022 Winter Olympics on Friday, becoming the first city to be awarded both the Summer and Winter Games.

The Chinese capital beat Kazakhstan's Almaty in a secret ballot of 85 IOC members held at a convention centre in downtown Kuala Lumpur in a decision that drew immediate criticism from human rights activists.

The ballot was conducted twice, first electronically and then by paper after it was discovered the electronic system had malfunctioned.

The IOC said Beijing won a surprisingly close vote, 44-40, with one abstention.

"Just as with the Beijing 2008 Summer Games, the Olympic Family has put its faith in Beijing again to deliver the athlete-centred, sustainable and economical Games we have promised," the Beijing Bid Committee said in a statement.

"This will be a memorable event at the foot of the Great Wall for the whole Olympic Family, the athletes and the spectators that will further enhance the tremendous potential to grow winter sports in our country, in Asia and around the world."

Despite concerns about a lack of natural snow in the city's distant mountains, and protests from human rights groups, Beijing had been the clear favourite to win the vote after it successfully hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The high-powered Chinese delegation assured IOC members that Beijing was the safe choice because it had already proved it could stage the Games and said it would take winter sports into the backyard of the world's most populated country.

The bid team from Almaty tugged at the IOC's heartstrings, urging the committee, which includes sports administrators, captains of industry and even royalty, to resist the temptation to go back to China.

Instead, it called on the IOC to send a positive message to smaller developing countries that they too could host the world's greatest sporting events.

Kazakhstan Prime Minister Karim Massimov delivered a powerful, moving speech, but the IOC, grappling with the effects of a global economic crisis and facing dwindling interest from countries wanting to host the Olympics, opted for Beijing.

The decision to go with China again reaffirmed the shifting power-base of world sport, with East Asia now poised to host three successive Olympics.

South Korea's Pyeongchang will host the 2018 Winter Games and Tokyo the 2020 Summer Olympics.