No bid from China for 2018 Winter Olympics

Published Oct. 14, 2009 6:13 p.m. ET

foxsports

China will not submit a bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2018. State media said Wednesday that both Harbin and Changchun in the northeast of the country had been ruled out as possible bidders. The official Xinhua News Agency said Harbin in Heilongjiang province had been turned down by China's sports governing body. It said Harbin - which bid for the 2010 Winter Games but failed to make the final shortlist - lacked the required infrastructure in comparison to other bid cities. The Beijing Legal Evening News said the State Administration of Sports had also turned down a bid proposal from Changchun, which hosted the Asian Winter Games in 2007, in neighboring Jilin province. No reason was given. Calls to the national sports body and to sports offices in the cities went unanswered Wednesday. Thursday is the deadline for national Olympic committees to submit bid applications to the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland. Confirmed bids are expected from Munich, Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Annecy, France. Munich, which held the 1972 Summer Olympics, aims to become the first city to host both the summer and winter games. Pyeongchang is bidding for the third time after narrowly losing for the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics. The IOC will choose the 2018 host city in July 2011.