Ukraine may bid for 2022 Winter Olympics with Poland, Slovakia
Baku, February 23 (AZERTAC). Ukraine may put in a joint bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games with neighbors Poland and Slovakia, President Viktor Yanukovych said in the Dialogue with the Country live television program on Friday.
With the country still groaning under the debts exacerbated by the Euro 2012 football tournament, Yanukovich said it would be wise to share the financial burden.
“We are starting these negotiations,” he said when asked about the possibility of a joint bid. “There`s such a thing as a three-way play. Ukraine would find it tough to go it alone.”
The president added that he has raised the issue at a trilateral meeting with the presidents of Poland and Slovakia.
“They are our rivals, but I told them that we will fight, as we are three Carpathian countries and, possibly, we could join up in order not to lose everything,” he said.
The deadline for bids to the International Olympic Committee is November 14, with the winning bids to be announced in the summer of 2015.
Poland and Slovakia had previously declared an interest in a two-way bid to hold the Games in the Polish resort of Zakopane near Krakow, and Poprad in Slovakia, with the Tatra Mountains spanning both locales.
Ukraine could contribute the nearby city of Lviv as a Games base that could host the skating events.
Other potential bidders include Almaty in Kazakhstan, Sarajevo, Nice, Munich, Oslo, Barcelona, and St. Moritz and Davos in Switzerland.
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