Adam Minter, Columnist

Goodbye, Sochi Slush. Hello, China Smog?

What’s worse than a snowless, sub-tropical winter Olympics like the one that just wrapped up in palm tree-lined Sochi this weekend? How about an opening ceremony held on an arid, smog-choked plain and skiing events held in the mountains of the most polluted province in all of China?

February 23, 2014 at 8:00 PM UTC

By Adam Minter

Adam Minter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the business of sports. He is the author, most recently, of “Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale."

Man wearing a mask to combat the smog in Beijing, China. Photographer: Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images

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What's worse than a snowless, subtropical Winter Olympics like the one that wrapped up in palm-tree-lined Sochi, Russia, this weekend? How about an opening ceremony on an arid, smog-choked plain and skiing events in the mountains of the most polluted province in all of China?

That's what Beijing and Zhangjiakou, a nearby mountain town, have proposed to the International Olympic Committee as an ideal site for the 2022 Winter Games. While athletes have been competing on Sochi's slopes, the Chinese Olympic Committee has been competing to establish its bid. Early on, it even earned an endorsement from Vladmir Putin.