Within minutes of the announcement that Almaty’s bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics had failed, it was almost as if it had never happened.
The crowd of about 1,000 people which had gathered on a square in the Kazakh city to hear Friday’s result started to disperse as soon as International Olympic Committee president Bach revealed the games would go to Beijing.
“It’s very sad that we didn’t win. We had been hoping for (the Olympics) because they would raise the prestige of the city and the country,” said Murat, a 26-year-old worker in the city administration who attended the event.
like many others in Almaty, Murat refused to give his surname because he works in a government job.
The muted reaction in Almaty was in contrast to the surprise at the vote in Malaysia, where Beijing had been widely expected to win easily but only prevailed by the narrow margin of 44-40 in the closest IOC vote in eight years.
For the Kazakh government, bidding for the Olympics was a matter of putting the country on the map globally and distinguishing it from other post-Soviet nations in Central Asia.
“By bidding for the Winter Games we showed the world the amazing progress that Kazakhstan has made since its independence. This alone is a major victory for our country,” Andrei Kryukov, the deputy head of the bid, said in a statement afterBeijing’s victory.
Under the slogan “Keeping it Real,” the bid had concentrated on Almaty’s abundant natural snowfall — a weakness for Beijing — and the city’s compactness, with all venues within a 30-kilometer (18-mile) radius.