BladesofSTEELwFIRE
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- Feb 15, 2010
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2022 Winter Olympics either in China or Kazakhstan!
- Thread starter BladesofSTEELwFIRE
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BladesofSTEELwFIRE
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- Feb 15, 2010
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There's no chance that China will play, unless they naturalize their whole roster.
Btw, the new sports minister of Sweden would gladly talk to the Swedish Olympic Committee about reapplying hosting the Winter Olympics
Interview in Swedish: http://www.dn.se/webb-tv/klipp/val-2014/idrottsministern-avslojar-vilket-lag-han-haller-pa/
BladesofSTEELwFIRE
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- Feb 15, 2010
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Europe would be first in line to get the Olympics that year.
However, since the Swedes is divided in 50% / 50% in most political subjects, there will be a lot of work for a Swedish Olympic Committee to get the "common" people on board this. If there's rumours of anything close to corruption within the IOC or SOC, the public opinion about hosting the games will take a nose dive.
There is also the problem that there isn't any large cities near the mountainous part of Sweden, only a couple middle sized towns* that might be pretty close at least (and by that I mean by Swedish standards mid sized 50-100K), which none of them need a large indoor arena.
* I'm thinking of Östersund or Borlänge.
If Östersund or Borlänge is too small, then we'll be back to Stockholm and discussion about the distance to the alpine skiing facilities.
The main interest of the people on this board of course is what it is, but there's far more to the Winter Olympics than hockey, you know.
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My money's on Beijing, unless no surprise candidates show up. Almaty will be too risky after all the flak the Sochi games got. Not that China is much better, but at least they're the devil everyone knows.
Geographically, neither is ideal, placing too many back-to-back games in the same region (well, in the people's minds at least, since the distances in Asia are pretty grand in reality).
Of course, the IOC only has itself to blame. That list of special privileges demanded by them released by the Norwegians is a staggering read. Truly makes one wonder why a single so-called "civilized" country would wish to organize these games anymore.
Yeah this is just stupid. Another Olympics in China after they just hosted one in 2008? Not a fan. I would also put my money on them over Kazakhstan as they will still be a bit player in the scales of world economy and influence.
If China gets it I expect them to put on the mother of all naturalization programs towards their hockey team. 7 years though is hardly enough time to bring about a successful programme... they'd have to round up every 11-15 year old and lock them in an ice hockey rink for the next half a decade.
If China gets it I expect them to put on the mother of all naturalization programs towards their hockey team. 7 years though is hardly enough time to bring about a successful programme... they'd have to round up every 11-15 year old and lock them in an ice hockey rink for the next half a decade.
As it happens, China is pretty much the only country in the world that could both do just that and even be successful with it.
Like I said in another thread, if any of those kids were from China's backwaters, they might even consider it an improvement in living conditions.
BladesofSTEELwFIRE
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- Feb 15, 2010
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If China does get it and went all out in developing a hockey team it would be interesting to see how far they can get. If they can break the top 25.
NICKtheGREEK
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I hope Kazakhstan gets the venue, I'd like to see them compete with the top teams again, hopefully Antropov will be able to compete.
ForsbergForever
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- May 19, 2004
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As in Nikolai Antropov? He'll be 42 in 2022, and I don't really see him having Jagr-level longevity...
OscarsCards
Spooky action at a distance
