Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympics

(Image credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images)

published 31 July 2015

The Chinese capital, which also hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, was selected by the International Olympic Committee on Friday as the official host of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Beijing will be the first city ever to host both a Winter and Summer Olympics. Almaty, Kazakhstan, was the runner-up for the 2022 Games.

Human rights activists are angry with the IOC's decision. "There is no hope that China would make any more progress on human rights than it did with the 2008 Games, and in fact things have declined radically since then under [President] Xi Jinping," John J. MacAloon, a University of Chicago historian, told the Los Angeles Times. Critics also contend that Beijing is "burdened by a host of major environmental and logistic issues, including air pollution, extreme water scarcity, and a dearth of high mountains and natural snow."