Will Poland host the 2022 Winter Olympics?

There's always a chance, but I don't see Krakow, Poland hosting the 2022 Olympics anytime soon.

Like the other commentators have pointed out, the other cities competing for the right to host the 2022 Olympics are Oslo, Norway; Almaty, Kazakhstan; Lviv, Ukraine; and Bejing, China.

Every since Stockholm dropped out, Oslo has been the favorite to win. The IOC is now trending towards safer bids, with the choice of Tokyo over Istanbul to host the 2020 Olympics as an example. With a new IOC president Thomas Bach, Bach is now trying to make hosting the Olympics less expensive to make them more appealing again. Just look at the potential hosts for the 2022 Olympic. Not many traditional winter Olympic medal winners are bidding. The only way I see Oslo loosing is if they drop out of fear of rising cost.

I don't see Beijing hosting the Olympics again this soon as Beijing just hosted the 2008 Olympics not that long ago. Plus the 2018 Olympics and 2020 Olympics are to hosted in Asian countries, so it's hard to see three Olympics to be hosted in Asia in a row.

Now for Almaty, I see this city as the underdog. Most people think that Almaty has nothing built already, but in truth, Almaty is much further developed than the other bidder as they have been building Olympic infrastructure the last years to prepare for hosting a potential Olympic one day.

If you know about the turmoil happening in Ukraine right now, you should know why Lviv's bid a long shot.

For Krakow, Poland the problem here is that they plan to have some mountain events to take place in neighboring nation of Slovakia. The IOC is not keen to have two nations involved with hosting an Olympic.

So to sum up, I don't expect Krakow to host the 2022 Olympics, but then again anything can happen.

According to Wikipedia, the candidate cities for the 2022 Winter Olympics are Krakow (Poland), Oslo (Norway), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Lviv (Ukraine), and Beijing (China).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Winter_Olympics

Off the bat, I eliminate Beijing because the previous Winter Olympics will be in Peyongchang, South Korea and previous Summer Olympics will be in Tokyo, Japan. The Chinese will have a tough time convincing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that a Chinese Olympics will be a refreshing change from ones in Korea and Japan. Besides, Bejing's 2008 Olympics probably has left a bad taste in many IOC members' mouths. So that's out.

I doubt Almaty will get serious consideration because I question if their infrastructure is suitable for an Olympics. After construction problems for Sochi (and, I predict, Rio de Janiero for the 2016 Summer Olympics), the last thing IOC members want is to see massive construction schedules slipping.

That leaves Oslo, Krakow, and Lviv. I think the wild card is Lviv. If the IOC chose the global welfare over its own self-interest, it would choose Lviv because, if Russia were to invade Ukraine, the IOC could then remove the Olympics from Lviv in protest. That could really stir things up between Ukraine and Russia. But the IOC isn't that brave or altruistic, so forget that.

Given Norway's prominence in Winter Olympics and the fact no Norwegian cities have hosted the Olympics in 70 years make it a clear, but not heavy, favorite over Krakow. I know no Olympics have ever been hosted in Poland, and it's certainly deserving. From what I understand, it did a very good job hosting the European Football tournament two years ago. But I think Oslo has the inside track.

Well we won't know for some time. The IOC will select its shortlist of candidates in July this year, and will select the 2022 host in July 2015.

One unique feature, and challenge for the Krakow bid is the fact that they are proposing to hold alpine skiing in Jasna, Slovakia, over 100 miles away, While the distance between clusters is comparable to those of past hosts and other would-be hosts, this is the first time an application has been filed proposing to host events in 2 separate countries. It is uncertain how the IOC will react to the proposal given that the contract requires legal and financial commitments on the host nation, in this case nations.

For most observers, the early favorite is Oslo.

@Al - It's only been 20 years since Norway hosted the Games in Lillehammer.

I would say that Oslo is the favorite. Beijing won't get another Olympics for some time. Almaty doesn't have the infrastructure, and Ukraine... Oh Ukraine I doubt that to. Oslo has proper infrastructure to host the games out of all the applicant cities.

Poland just like other cities/countries have a chance. I wouldn't say Poland will win it because I don't know that. I don't mind, all nations look exciting for the next Olympics.

I'd probably predict Oslo/Norway.