Winter Olympics: Almaty, Beijing & Oslo are 2022 candidates

The 2014 Games were held in Sochi, Russia

The Kazakh city Almaty has been declared as one of three official candidate cities to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Beijing in China and Oslo in Norway are the other cities vying to host the event, the International Olympic Committee has announced.

The three cities were the only contenders following the withdrawals of Stockholm, Krakow and Lviv.

Almaty also bid for the 2014 games but failed to reach the candidature stage.

Beijing held the summer Olympics in 2008, while Oslo last staged the Winter Games in 1952.

Only three cities bid for the 2018 winter Games, which were awarded to Pyeongchang in South Korea.

The winning bid for the 2022 Games will be announced in 2015.