KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Almaty has pleaded with International Olympic Committee members to not consider them a "risky" choice to host the 2022 Winter Games simply because the central Asian country of Kazakhstan is not familiar to many of them.
In a hard-hitting speech Friday during its final presentation, Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov says "there were no fabrications about our compact venue plan, our travel times or our accommodation resources," an indirect criticism of Beijing's extravagant proposals and greater distances between venues.
Almaty's venues are all within a 30-kilometer (18-mile) radius of the city.
IOC members were to vote later Friday after Beijing made its final presentation.
Bid vice chairman Andrey Kryukov says an Olympics in Almaty would ensure "a return to simplicity, like the Winter Games used to be."
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