IOC Almaty Inspection Chief Impressed; Media Questions Ban - On the Scene

(ATR) (ATR) The head of the IOC’s 2022 Olympic Evaluation Commission tells Around the Rings he's impressed with Almaty's Olympic bid.

ATR caught up with Russian IOC member Alexander Zhukov at the outdoor Medeo ice arena in the foothills of the Zailiyskiy Alatau mountains, around 25 minutes from Almaty city centre.

Asked what he thought of the Almaty 2022 bid on day three of the IOC’s inspection, he smiled and said: "It is a very good impression."

Zhukov didn’t pause to talk with the press, despite it being the only occasion scheduled in three days of venue tours for the media to intersect with the IOC delegation. For the 2018 Winter Olympics campaign, the bid cities offered more photo opportunities and a little more access to the IOC.

The IOC’s Agenda 2020 reforms appear not to have significantly changed the way it conducts its evaluation commission visits.

After waiting for two-and-a-half days for a glimpse of the IOC delegation, the pack of 50-plus journalists had just five minutes for a photo call with the bid inspectors at the Medeo arena. At 1,700 meters, it's the highest ice arena for international competition in the world.

Questions were banned, apparently due to protocols. Reporters were blocked from approaching Zhukov and the IOC delegation, who were whisked off the site to continue their venue tour at the Shymbulak ski resort at 2,260 meters.

Pressed for a comment by ATR, British IOC member Adam Pengilly did stop to offer a few remarks to reporters about his impressions of Almaty.

Under blue skies, the two-time skeleton Winter Olympian said: "It's a nice place. The sun is shining. It’s a beautiful venue."

"We have been very well looked after. We have asked a lot of questions. We were givengood answers," he said of the closed-door briefings and site visits.

"It is early doors and there are a lot of things to analyse," added the IOC Athletes’ Commission member, adopting an English colloquial expression to indicate that it was too premature to make any judgement on Almaty 2022.

Other members of the IOC Evaluation Commission, including IOC members Barry Maister of New Zealand and Japan’s Tsunekazu Takeda as well as Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi, didn’t stop to speak to the media.

Earlier in the day, the IOC inspection team visited Olympic City, where the Olympic Village and media village would be built from scratch.

At the Medeo arena, where more than 200 world and Soviet records have been set since the venue opened in 1951, the IOC officials heard how the facility would be upgraded for the 2022 Olympics. It’s regarded as an iconic city landmark for recreational skaters. A roof is planned for the open-air venue with seating expanded to 6,000. The project is estimated to cost $50 million.

The IOC’s final stop of the day was Shymbulak, which will stage downhill and Super G at the 2022 Olympics if Almaty’s bid succeeds. Improvements for the Games are expected to total $100 million.

Monday marked the end of venue tours for the IOC and media. On Tuesday, the IOC will continue its scrutiny of the Almaty’s bid book in private sessions.

Zhukov will give the IOC’s verdict on the Kazakh bid at a press conference on Wednesday that wraps up the five-day inspection.

Reported from Almaty by Mark Bisson

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