Narrator: Beijing promised to host the Winter Olympics
for the low price of $3.9 billion.
That would make it the cheapest games in two decades.
But behind headlines of sustainability and savings
is a catalog of spending that could actually land Beijing
among the most expensive games in history.
Andrew: You might hear with regard to Beijing 2022
that the budget is $3.9 billion.
What does that mean? Almost nothing.
Narrator: We may never know some of the costs,
but others are hiding in plain sight,
like the artificial snow covering these mountains.
We combed through news reports,
press releases, and official documents
and found more than $38 billion in spending
related to the 2022 Olympic Games.
We also found human and environmental costs
that don't show up on any price tag at all.
This is just one of three brand-new Olympic Villages
that were built in the last few years
to house thousands of athletes during the games.
It cost about $3.2 billion to build.
Including the cost of just this village
would nearly double the official budget.
Of course, experts have long debated how to calculate
the true cost of a mega-event like the Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee told Insider
that the official budget doesn't include infrastructure
like new trains or highways
But when China hosted the Summer Games in 2008,
the country's own tally was $42 billion
and included infrastructure,
like an airport terminal in Beijing.
Later estimates put the total at over $50 billion.
But Russia outdid China's spending
on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Beijing's official tally of $3.9 billion
looks especially low when you consider
that no games since London have cost less than $13 billion.
But that's because the official budget includes very little
beyond the cost of running the 19-day event.
So, what's missing?
Any so-called official numbers or budgetary figures
that come out of any of these games is highly suspect.
Narrator: Andrew Zimbalist's books
changed the conversation on Olympic costs
and influenced potential host cities.
Andrew: That number of $3.9 billion is a very restricted number
that doesn't give you any real sense
of what the total costs were or will be.
Narrator: There are 25 venues
for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The main athletes' village is in Beijing,
and that's where ice hockey, speed skating,
big air events, and curling will take place.
Unveiled in January, the new National Speed Skating Oval
is estimated to have cost $186.6 million,
but we can't find this in the accounting for the games.
There were some price tags that we couldn't find at all,
like the cost of a venue called Big Air Shougang
that was built on an old steel mill site.
The Beijing suburb of the Yanqing
is home to a second Olympic Village and brand-new venues
for bobsled, skeleton, luge, and alpine skiing.
Another number that doesn't appear to be in the budget?
These Yanqing venues that total $442.9 million,
according to one 2018 estimate.
We also don't know how much most
of the new venues cost in Zhangjiakou,
like this National Ski Jumping Center
and the cost of a third new Olympic Village in Zhangjiakou,
as well as four new venues for sports like biathlon,
cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, and snowboarding.
The total costs could be much, much higher.
In 2018, state media said refurbishing existing venues
would be cheap, but they didn't say how cheap.
China has publicly said that
the Olympic Villages will be sold
or used as hotels and apartments after the Olympics
and that this kind of permanent infrastructure
will be counted as part of
a long-term investment in winter sports,
including in some places where it rarely snows.
We found major infrastructure costs
related to the 2022 Olympics, like a brand-new bullet train
that links all three host cities.
It's fully automated
and tops out at over 200 mph.
And it cuts the travel time between Beijing and Zhangjiakou
from three hours to just under an hour.
What's the total cost? $9.2 billion.
It's one train that costs more than double
the entire official Olympic budget.
Oh, and one car has a live broadcast studio for state media –
something that may or may not be useful
outside of a few weeks in February.
State media Xinhua reported
that the train was custom-made for the Beijing Games.
Beijing also spent $205.6 million
to spruce up one of the region's airports
and $773.5 million on a new subway line.
China's also finishing up a $15 billion highway project
to connect venues in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.
Bent: So these costs can be enormous.
Like, an airport is hugely expensive,
a new rail line, and so on.
Narrator: Bent has authored numerous studies on
Olympic costs that don't include major infrastructure,
because those expenditures are decided by the host city.
Often, these costs –
I mean, they would be done anyway
President Xi Jinping
visited Olympic venues before the games.
Narrator: But a green Olympics may not be so simple.
The main skiing venues are in a parched part of China
that gets just 25 inches of average annual snowfall,
not nearly enough to cover the slopes.
By comparison, Park City, Utah, gets 235 inches.
That's where Salt Lake City's Olympic giant slalom was held.
Snowmaking for the Olympics would require
500 million gallons of water, according to one estimate.
Andrew: They're going to be diverting water away
from the agricultural uses in order
to make the artificial snow.
Those environmental costs are not going to be included.
Narrator: When asked for comment,
the IOC defended the snowmaking plan.
Some costs have been even harder to tally.
AFP reported that farmers were forced from their land
to make way for solar energy.
This man says he saw farmers get beaten and detained
when they refused to sign contracts
with one of China's largest utilities to build solar panels.
Narrator: In a statement, the IOC told Insider
that more than 1,500 residents have been resettled
or compensated for being displaced for the Olympics.
Beijing did not respond to requests
for comment on this topic.
For all of the money spent on the games,
Beijing won't even be able
to recoup its costs through ticket sales
because spectators aren't allowed.
Organizers also told us that the official budget
will be released six months after the games have ended.
Bent: We know that China has a dodgy record with data.
So you know, basically if the party says
there's no cost overrun, there's no cost overrun.
Narrator: Without those answers,
it's likely we'll never get a full understanding
of what the Winter Games cost in 2022.