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I think this will be the first winter olympics that are being conducted on 100% manufactured snow, at great environmental cost.

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One assessment comparing each event from 1992 to 2020 found that, contrary to official policy, Games were becoming less — not more — sustainable. “There is quite the disconnect between the rhetoric on the one hand and the outcomes on the other,” said Martin Müller, a professor of geography and sustainability at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland....

At the same time, the IOC risks turning countries off the idea of hosting the Games if it makes the bidding process too onerous. By the time the final decision was made in 2015, Beijing’s only challenger for 2022 hosting rights was Kazakhstan’s Almaty, the scene of violent protests this month, after other candidates, including Oslo and Stockholm, dropped out for lack of public support.