Olympic Committee to evaluate Beijing next week

The Olympic Agenda 2020, a reform proposal containing 40 recommendations featuring a sustainable approach of biding and hosting future Olympic Games, was approved at the 127th IOC Session in early December.

The inspection visit to Beijing for its 2022 Olympic Winter Games bid will be the first IOC evaluation trip following Agenda 2020's approval.

The IOC evaluation commission will arrive in the Chinese capital on Sunday for a five-day inspection visit. Throughout the visit the evaluation commission members will be presented with the plans of the joint bid by Beijing and Zhangjiakou and will tour all the proposed venues and sites.

The 19-member evaluation team is chaired by Alexander Zhukov, IOC member and president of Russian Olympic Committee and three other IOC members, including Barry Maister from New Zealand, Adam Pengilly from Great Britain and Tsunekazu Takeda from Japan.

The IOC Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi and the IOC Head of Olympic Bid City Coordination Jacqueline Barrett will also join the evaluation team, together with representatives of national and regional Olympic committees, athletes, experts and representatives of the International Paralympic Committee to visit Beijing and Zhangjiakou.

During the visit, the Beijing committee will brief the evaluation team on details of host 2022 Winter Olympics under 14 themes. The evaluation commission will also conduct a field inspection to 19 competition and non-competition venues and supporting facilities, as well as assess the transportation system and all other infrastructural elements in the three Games zones of Beijing downtown, northwest Beijing's Yanqing county and Zhangjiakou.

After the visit, the evaluation commission will complete an assessment report based on the inspection of the two Bid cities, Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan. The report will be used as an important reference for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Host City Election, which will be held on July 31 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn