Oslo (RWH) The bid of the Norwegian capital Oslo to stage the Olympic Winter Games 2022 has failed. So now only two candidate cities, Almaty in Kazakhstan and the Chinese capital Beijing, compete to host the sport mega-event. The winning bid is due to be announced at the session of the International Olympic Committee in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) on July 31 next year.

On Wednesday, the Norwegian government with Prime Minister Erna Solberg failed to give support to the bid of Oslo because of the costs: The Scandinavian country would have to guarantee for at least three Billion Euro. At last the local Government of Oslo withdraws its bid.

Prior to the resignation of Oslo as candidate city, also Lviv (Ukraine), Krakow in Poland and the Swedish capital Stockholm had withdrawn their bids. The planned bids of the Swiss region Graubünden and of Munich in Germany failed in the run-up because of the opposition of their citizens.