By Karolos Grohmann
KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 (Reuters) - Almaty could consider
another Olympic bid campaign after narrowly losing out to
Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, Kazakhstan's Prime
Minister Karim Massimov hinted on Friday.
Almaty was defeated by four votes in the International
Olympic Committee vote in Kuala Lumpur, with Beijing garnering
44 and Kazakhstan's largest city ending up with 40 votes.
"This is a very good opportunity and a very good experience
to participate in some other bid in the future," Massimov told
Reuters minutes after the loss as he left the presentation hall
in the Malaysian capital.
Massimov's presentation earlier on Friday in front of the
IOC was widely praised as outstanding and the narrow margin of
the defeat, which many observers had not expected, showed Almaty
had made more friends within the IOC than previously thought.
Beijing had been the front-runner in the race with Almaty
closing the gap in the past weeks with a series of positively
received presentations.
"I certainly hope we will see Almaty back," IOC
Vice-President John Coates told Reuters. "They had a very good
bid."
Almaty's compact concept with all the venues within a 35km
radius and with the snow-capped mountains hugging the city,
stood in stark contrast to Beijing's plan of ice sports in the
city and sliding and skiing events well away at mountain venues.
Those venues, the IOC has said, saw minimal annual snowfall
that would see them rely almost entirely on snow-making machines
and would not have a winter sports destination feel.
"I think Almaty's presentation was outstanding and their
Prime Minister? What can I say. Just a super star," IOC
Vice-President Craig Reedie said.
(Editing by John O'Brien)