The bids are in for the 2022 Olympics, and there are no surprises.
The five cities that previously announced intentions to host the 2022 Winter Olympics made it official by Friday’s deadline to submit application files.
They are Beijing; Oslo; Almaty, Kazakhstan; Krakow, Poland and Lviv, Ukraine.
Beijing’s group previously said it planned to hold some events in Zhangjiakou. Krakow’s group previously said it planned to hold some events in Jasna, Slovakia. That could still be the case, but the official bids are single-city ones.
The International Olympic Committee’s executive board will decide which cities advance to a final stage in Lausanne, Switzerland, from July 7-9.
The IOC will vote to select the host city on July 31, 2015, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Beijing, which hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, could become the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Games. Oslo hosted the 1952 Olympics. Kazakhstan, Poland and Ukraine have never hosted an Olympics.