The organising committee for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games has been established five months after the election of Beijing as host city, with Guo Jinlong confirmed as president of the newly formed body.

During the 2008 Olympic Games, Guo was mayor of Beijing and executive chairman of the organising committee.

Guo said the first duty would be to review Beijing's host city contract in light of the IOC's Olympic Agenda 2020.

"We will pore over the HCC and the Olympic Agenda 2020, and review our bid commitments before we work out the roadmap and timetable," Guo was reported as saying by Xinhua News Agency.

"We shall ensure every task is accomplished.”

The organising committee, created by the city and the National Olympic Committee, will be responsible for ensuring the Games are organised successfully. Its establishment follows an Orientation Seminar that was held in early November in Beijing. 

Guo’s appointment was welcomed by IOC president Thomas Bach.

“On behalf of the International Olympic Committee, it is my great pleasure to congratulate everyone on the inauguration of the Organising Committee for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022,” he said.

“Allow me to congratulate Mr Guo Jinlong, the President of the Organising Committee.

“Beijing is making history as the first city in the world to host both the Olympic Summer Games and the Olympic Winter Games.”

Reducing the cost and increasing the sustainability of hosting the Games is a key aim of Agenda 2020. 

Using infrastructure from the 2008 Olympic Games will help Beijing to keep costs down, with a projected budget of US$1.5bn.

“The formation of the Organising Committee represents the start of an exciting journey for the entire Olympic family,” said Bach.

“This milestone is the first step on our six-year journey together to deliver brilliant Olympic Winter Games in 2022 for Beijing, for China, and for the world.”

Beijing was selected as host of the 2022 ahead of Almaty, the only other city that progressed to the candidature stage. 

The host faces challenges in managing air pollution in the city and ensuring there is enough snow in the mountain resort of  Zhangjiakou. 

According to Xinhua, Chinese President Xi Jinping has asked the organizers to "work harder to host a fantastic, extraordinary and excellent Games”, saying city management, environmental protection, budgetary control and the appeal of winter sports in China will all need to be heightened. 

A number of Chinese dignitaries atteneded the launch of the organising committee, including Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli, Beijing 2022 President Guo Jinlong, Chinese Olympic Committee President Liu Peng, Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong, Beijing Mayor Wang Anshun and Hebei Governor Zhang Qingwei. 

Impressed by their legacy plans, the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Executive Board today unanimously agreed to progress applicant cities Almaty, Beijing and Oslo to the candidate city phase as they vie to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

The IOC would have had a larger pool of cities to choose from, had Krakow, Lviv and Stockholm not already pulled out of the race. Despite losing half of the potential bidders along the way, the rights holder of the world’s greatest multi-sports event asserted that candidature was by no means a guarantee for the three remaining contenders. 

"Three is a good number to go forward," said IOC vice president John Coates. "If there was one of those that wasn't of quality we wouldn't have sent it forward."

The decision of the Executive Board was based on a technical analysis of applications submitted earlier in 2014, assessing areas such as venues, transport, accommodation and security.

The IOC noted that all three bids have the potential to benefit the host cities and regions. 

“Each city was encouraged to produce a bid best suited to their own unique circumstances, with plans that reflect their own specific vision for how the Games can benefit their cities and regions and ensure positive, sustainable legacies for their populations. Oslo, Almaty and Beijing have done that,” the IOC said in a statement.

The legacy plans differ in focus: Oslo aims to engage young people and the population as a whole in a healthier lifestyle; Almaty plans to use the Games to attract people to the city for future events of all kinds; while Beijing’s plans focus on boosting Winter sports in China. 

”It was good to see that each of the bidding cities understood the difference between the Olympic Games budget and the long-term infrastructure and investment budget, which will benefit their communities for decades to come,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.

“The Executive Board is confident that the future hosts of the Olympic Winter Games can break even with the Olympic Games budget – as Vancouver has just announced for the Olympic Winter Games 2010. Or, as in the case of Sochi, make a considerable profit, which they project to be in the range of 200 million dollars.

“This is possible not least because of the extensive financial assistance given by the IOC. In the case of Sochi, this amounted to USD 750 million and it is likely that figure will be even higher for the host of the Olympic Winter Games 2022.”

The three cities must submit their detailed candidature files – or “bid books” – by January 2015, when the IOC will begin the process of evaluating the bids and finally electing the host city at the IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur on 31 July 2015.

To find out more about the bidding process for the Olympic Games and other major events, register to attend HOST CITY: Bid to Win, which takes place in London on 28th October.

[Source: European Championships Management] The EC2022 Board is pleased to announce that Munich will host the 2022 European Championships following unanimous approval of their bid by the participating European Federations.

Munich 2022 will also mark the 50th anniversary of the Olympic Games held in the German city, with the iconic Munich Olympic Park set to be the heart of the second edition of the multi-sport championships. 

Six sports that were part of the 2018 edition have already confirmed their participation and the staging of their respective continental championships in the event that will take place Thursday 11 to Sunday 21 August 2022: Athletics, Cycling, Golf, Gymnastics, Rowing and Triathlon.  

Eurovision Sport, a division of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), will again be the media rights partner for the Championships, ensuring extensive free-to-air coverage through EBU Member broadcasters and partners.  

The majority of events and activities will take place in and around the Munich Olympic Park in order to create an extraordinary festival atmosphere that allows athletes from different sports to experience the event together and visitors to embrace multiple events.   

The EC2022 Board is also pleased to confirm the dates of the 2026 edition of the European Championships. Following consultation involving the participating European Federations (European Athletics, UEC, FISA, UEG, ETU, ET-LET), the dates are: Thursday 30 July to Sunday 9 August 2026. 

European Championships 2022 Board Chair and European Athletics President Svein Arne Hanfsen said: "I speak for all the participating sports in saying how delighted we are to be going to the wonderful city of Munich in 2022, and for athletics we are especially happy to be heading back to Germany, after the success of Berlin 2018, where we know there are so many passionate sports fans. It is testament to the fantastic legacy of the Munich Olympic Park that we will bring our individual European Championships together again there, on the 50th anniversary of the Olympic Games, and use many of its iconic venues. 

"We are very pleased to partner again with Eurovision Sport, meaning that millions of sports fans will be able to experience the unique excitement of the European Championships 2022, via free-to-air broadcasters."  

The inaugural European Championships in 2018 took place through 2-12 August, with Glasgow and Berlin successfully staging seven European Championships with 13 disciplines.  

A television audience of more than 1.4 billion watched this memorable first edition on free-to-air channels via EBU Member broadcasters and partners in 44 territories across Europe and worldwide. There were 1.9 billion visits on websites registered and the reach on social media was 745 million. 

Across the two host cities, a total of one million people attended a sports session at the likes of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, watched a road race on the cities’ streets, or experienced the festival-like atmospheres in George Square in Glasgow and the Breitscheidplatz in Berlin.   

Hear Stefan Kuerten, Executive Director of Eurovision Sport, discuss the challenges and achievements of developing the European Championships at Host City 2019 in Glasgow on 26-27 November

The European Sports Federation members of the European Championships Board have confirmed their intentions to take part in the 2022 edition of the new “European Championships” multi-sport event, which takes place for the first time in Glasgow and Berlin in August 2018.
The Board members of the European sports federations of athletics, swimming, cycling, gymnastics, rowing, triathlon and golf all committed in principle to participating in 2022 after preliminary discussions on the host venue selection process for future editions of the championships.
European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen, co-chair of the European Championships Board, said there is already great interest from cities, regions and countries in hosting the 2022 European Championships following Berlin-Glasgow in 2018.
“This shows the value of our innovative concept – for the sports and the future bidding cities,” said President Hansen. “It is obvious why all the participating sports want to carry on in 2022 as the European Championships is a sustainable event that brings together our existing championships without adding to a crowded calendar, and this is very attractive and affordable to a wide range of host cities."
Fellow co-chair Paolo Barelli, President of the Ligue Européenne de Natation (European Aquatics), said: "The inaugural edition in 2018 will deliver to the participating sports huge benefits in terms of aggregation, through a higher profile and reach through our media agreements with the European Broadcasting Union. This will ensure our long-term financial security as we are confident the championships will go from strength-to-strength through 2022 and beyond."
In 2018, the existing senior European Championships of athletics, aquatics, cycling, gymnastics, rowing and triathlon will be brought together for the first time in Berlin and Glasgow, with a new Golf Team Championships also being introduced onto the European stage.
Around 1,500 athletes will compete in Berlin through 7-12 August 2018 as part of the European Athletics Championships. Approximately 3,025 athletes will compete in Glasgow in the other six events between 1-12 August.
The European Championships is collectively run by the participating European Sports Federations and all decisions are made by the European Championships Board, which is jointly chaired by European Athletics and LEN. Each Federation is independently responsible for their own sport within the concept and all decisions to participate are taken in full compliance with the decision-making processes and governance rules of each Federation.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which holds the broadcast rights on all platforms, has already confirmed coverage across the top five markets for 2018, with BBC in the United Kingdom, ARD/ZDF in Germany, France Televisions in France, RAI in Italy and TVE in Spain. These countries represent a major part of the potential television audience of 1.03 billion. 
Meanwhile, a dispute between the European Championships organisers and the European Olympic Committees (EOC) continues. In response to a request for information from Host City, the EOC issued a statement on 31 May in which it cited a clause in a contract issued to the European Federations by the European Sports Championship Management (ESCM) which said: “EF shall not enter into any agreement for the integration of the Event and/or any other official EF competition requiring the participation of national federations and elite athletes in any other multisport event during the term of this Agreement and until one (1) year after the end of ESC 2018”.
In the statement, the EOC said “our stance is taken to ensure that new commercial entities cannot be allowed to erode the longstanding right of Olympic Movement stakeholders to stage their own established events.”
The support of the federations for the 2022 edition was announced at the European Championships Board meeting in Berlin on Monday. The Board also received updates from 2018 hosts Berlin and Glasgow and Working Groups related to the overall timetable, brand, and ceremonies, celebrations and shared experiences. The next Board meeting will be in Rome on 27 October 2016.