Reporting from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland – Almaty took one step closer to the dream of hosting the Olympic Games after presenting its 2022 Winter Games bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne Tuesday.
A prior meeting wound up earlier allowing the 45-minute presentation to begin 10-minutes ahead of schedule and 85 IOC members (of 102) were present to watch. There were reportedly several questions during the question and answer session that took the entire 45 minute time allotment to answer; these questions covered topics on sports, Olympism, the climate and the athlete experience.
Leading the delegation was Kazakhstan Prime Minister Karim Massimov.
Also presenting for Almaty were Mayor Akhmetzhan Yessimov, National Olympic Committee President Temirkhan Dosmukhambetov, Minister of Culture and Sport Arystanbek Mukhamediuly, Sochi 2014 Figure Skating Olympic Bronze Medalist Denis Ten, Women and Sport Committee Chair Natalya Sipovich, Vice Chairman of Almaty 2022 Andrey Kryukov and Almaty 2022 Executive Director Ilya Urazakov.
“It was a very friendly atmosphere, like we were part of [the] family. We feel a very comfortable stay there.” Kryukov said immediately after the presentation.
He claimed that the impact of Agenda 2020 on the technical presentation made it a much better experience.
“It’s really, real, we can touch it now,” he added.
“We are very optimistic and we convinced everything, what the IOC members wanted to hear, they heard today.”
Denis Ten, the bid’s most prominent athlete ambassador, was very encouraged by the outcome.
“It was a very interesting experience,” he said.
“A very good presentation in my opinion. It was very well responded, very well received by the IOC.
“There were no tough questions.
“All our members spoke perfect English, fluent English,” Ten said, adding that this was particularly useful during the question and answer period.
Ten said he answered one question regarding the athlete experience.
Almaty’s presentation will be followed by the same from Beijing.
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