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Beijing Sochi Winter Olympics

Brand of the day: Winter Olympics

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By Rebecca Stewart, Trends Editor

July 31, 2015 | 3 min read

Welcome to Brand of the Day, where we pick the brand making headlines and explain what you need to know about why it's in the news.

Our brand of the day is the Winter Olympics.

Beijing has been selected to host the next tournament in 2022, pipping Kazakhstan's Almaty to the post.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said that China's capital was awarded the Games because it fitted the tournament's new agenda for a "stronger focus on sustainability, legacy, and transparency".

The first ever Winter Olympics took place on 25 January 1924 in France. It has since been held on three continents by eleven different countries including the US, Italy, Japan and Austria.

Taking place every four years, the competition comprises 15 sporting disciplines from bobsleighing to snowboarding.

For a period of 20 years, starting in 1952, former IOC president Avery Brunage made efforts to de-commercialise the Games, but in 1960 organisers brought corporate sponsors on-board. Last year's event in Sochi attracted a record number of advertisers with the total value of contracts thought to amount to almost half a trillion dollars.

But 2014's tournament was not without its controversies.

The Games were the most expensive in history, clocking in at $51bn, and prior to kick off president Putin implemented a law against "homosexual information" which made the "spreading of information directed to the forming in adolescents of non-traditional sexual arrangements" an offence.

The new law prompted calls from LGBT rights groups for sponsor Coca-Cola to drop out and seen politicians, including German prime minister Joachim Gauck, boycott the contest.

Today's win for Beijing follows its success as host for the Summer Games in 2008.

However, not everyone is satisfied with the IOC's decision – Human Rights Watch's China director Sophie Richardson said: "The Olympic motto of 'higher, faster, and stronger' is a perfect description of the Chinese government's assault on civil society: more peaceful activists detained in record time, subject to far harsher treatment.

"In choosing China to host another Games, the IOC has tripped on a major human rights hurdle," she added.

Beijing Sochi Winter Olympics

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