Almaty will bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2014. The ski slopes around town are ok – but nothing of international calibre. Medeu, a mountain sport complex at around 1,700 meters altitude, would probably act as a centre for such games. And it’s good for people’s health:
Almaty nomination to host Winter Olympic Games corresponds to the concept of the Head of the State aimed at health promotion and elevation of Kazakhstan image in the international arena.
Almaty is running against the Borjomi or Bakuriani area in Georgia, PyeongChang in South Korea, Salzburg in Austria, Sochi in Russia and Sofia in Bulgaria – what an interesting composition.
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Ben – author of 13 posts on Registan.net.
24, studying Development Economics in the UK. Editor of neweurasia.
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As someone who happens to work at a company with a major interest in the Winter Olympics, I think that the infrastructure investment would be good for KZ, GE, RU, BU…
I bet it’ll be Bulgaria… Eastern Europe is the fastest growing winter sports market.
I’m originally from Sochi so slightly biased. However there has been tremendous investment into the city and the areas around it. I think they spent up to 2 bill dollars to upgrade and develop mountain resorts in the past 5 years not even mentioning the amount of investment the city got pumped into it. Most of the Russian elite as well as regular folks visit the city and its always been a resort. My guess it would be either Bulgaria or Russia.
As a Dutch, I welcome the Olympics in Kazakhstan. In Sovjet time we always managed to have top results on the Medeo skating ring. I am now living in Kazakhstan most of the time and see with my own eyes there is still a long way to go. Almost everything has to be rebuild. After 14 years independence there is almost nothing left from the sports infrastructure in the country. But 2014 is still some time to go and with the current healthy economical situation in the country the financial means are present.