Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

The 2022 Winter Olympics Will Be Held In Beijing, China

07/31/2015 at 10:05am EDT

from IIHF.com,

The International Olympic Committee has awarded the 2022 Olympic Winter Games to Beijing, China, and the 2020 Youth Olympic Winter Games to Lausanne, Switzerland.

Both event hosts were decided during the 128th IOC Session held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Beijing beat out the other bid from Almaty, Kazakhstan, by a close vote of 44-40.

"I congratulate Beijing on becoming the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Games, and congratulations to Almaty for putting forth an excellent bid," said IIHF President and IOC Executive Board member René Fasel.

"Both bids were very strong but I am happy to see Beijing as the 2022 host because it gives the IIHF a great platform to promote the sport of ice hockey in Asia. Now with the next two Winter Olympics taking place in Korea and China, we have a tremendous opportunity to open up new horizons for our sport and to showcase ice hockey to a new generation.” ...

An IIHF member since 1963, the status of China’s ice hockey teams regarding automatic host qualification is still to be determined. The men’s team has yet to qualify for an Olympic tournament, but the women’s team participated in three Winter Games in 1998, 2002, and most recently Vancouver 2010. The nation’s best result came in Nagano 1998, when the team put up big wins over Japan and Sweden in the first round, but ultimately lost 4-1 to Finland in the bronze medal game and finished in fourth place.

China’s men’s national team is 38th in the IIHF World Ranking, while the women’s team is 16th.

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In case you are wondering, Beijing, China is 12 hours ahead of EST.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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