Poland, Slovakia to file joint bid for 2022 Winter Olympics

PanARMENIAN.Net - Poland and Slovakia agreed to file a joint bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games to share costs and boost economic growth amid government austerity measures sparked by Europe’s debt crisis, Bloomberg reported.

Slovakia would organize alpine skiing and ice hockey events, while the Polish city of Krakow would act as the main center of the games, Slovak Premier Robert Fico and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk said after a meeting of ministers of from the two countries.

“I believe this will be a financially viable project,” Fico said at a joint press conference with Tusk in the mountain town of Poprad, Slovakia. “We shouldn’t drop our ambitions just because there is a crisis in the euro zone.”

Poland, the largest eastern EU member, can draw from its experience of co-hosting the European soccer championship last year with Ukraine, Tusk said. Slovakia, a country of 5.5 million people, about one-seventh of Poland’s population, is counting on its skiing resorts including Jasna, which is operated by Tatry Mountain Resort (TMR) AS, and its hosting of the 2011 world ice hockey championships to support the bid.

The two countries would submit the joint bid to the International Olympic Committee in October, according to the preliminary schedule released by the Slovak administration. The IOC is expected to create a shortlist of applicants by June next year and pick the host city in 2015.