Copyright (c) 2011 International Games Broadcasting Services
A multi-sport event sanctioned by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has visited Central Asia for the very first time, as the 7th edition of the Asian Winter Games, held from 30 January to 6 February 2011, were set in Kazakhstan, holding them in two co-hosting cities: Almaty, and the capital Astana.
843 athletes from 26 NOCs took part in the Astana-Almaty Games, with Bahrain, Qatar and Singapore making their debuts. Macau and Pakistan, however, did not compete after taking part in the previous Winter Asiad in Changchun four years earlier.
The Kazakh hosts topped the medal table for the first time in a Winter Asiad, collecting 70 medals overall, which include 32 golds. They finished ahead of South Korea and Japan, which respectively placed second with 54 and third with 38, but both have garnered 13 gold medals each.
Being the biggest event in Kazakhstan's modern memory, staging these Games has been the ex-Soviet state's first opportunity in hosting international-scale sporting competitions, though its athletes have already recorded some impressive achievements, particularly in summer sports. Kazakhstan, in fact, sought these Asian Winter Games as an important trial on whether the country is capable enough in hosting the Winter Olympics.
Although the city already fielded a bid for the Winter Games in 2014 but fails to make the IOC shortlist, Almaty did try again in bidding for 2022, however, the Almaty bid came so close in getting the hosting rights when it was beaten by Beijing through a 40-44 vote from IOC members. Almaty, nonetheless, would then set the stage to the Winter Universiade (now known as the FISU World University Games) in 2017, mostly accommodating much of the existing venues and facilities that were already built and also used for the 2011 Winter Asiad.
