The process for the 2022 Winter Games will consist of two phases, the candidature acceptance procedure and the candidature procedure, beginning with the deadline for National Olympic Committee's (NOC) to submit their chosen bid city on November 14 this year.

An applicant city seminar will take place in December 4 until 6 this year in Lausanne, before potential host cities delegations travel to Sochi for a Winter Games Observer Programme during next year's Games in February.

Candidature files will then be submitted the following month on March 14, before the IOC Executive Board announces the shortlist of candidate cities in July 2014 on a date to be confirmed.

The host city for the 2022 Winter Games will be announced at the IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31 2015

Submission of candidature files, IOC evaluation visits and candidate city briefing to IOC members will then take place between January and May 2015, before the host city is announced at the IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015.

The process for the Youth Olympics is similar, with candidate cities to be forwarded to the IOC by November 28 this year, followed on with the submission of candidature files on June 17, 2014, and an observer programme for candidate cities at the Nanjing Summer Youth Olympics in August 2014.

The IOC Executive Board will then unveil their shortlist of candidate cities on December 2 and 3 next year, with the election of the host city pencilled in for May or June 2015 following video conferences between the cities and the Evaluation Commission.

Many cities are believed to be interested in hosting the 2022 Winter Games, and Norwegian capital Oslo received full backing to go ahead with a bid for the 2022 Games this week, subject to a public referendum this September.

Ukraine confirmed their intentions to bid yesterday, with the city to be put forward most likely to be Lviv, and there is also believed to be potential bids from the likes of Stockholm, Barcelona, Sarajevo, and Munich, who were defeated by Pyeongchang in the 2018 Winter Games bid race.

The Bavarian city will hold a referendum in November to decide whether they will make another bid to host the Games. 

Munich could return with another bid for the Winter Games in 2022 after losing out to Pyeongchang for the 2018 Games

Beijing are also believed to be mulling a bid for the Games in a joint-effort with neighbouring city Zhangjiakou, with a joint Polish-Slovakian bid also a strong possibility. 

The bidding for the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics has been somewhat more low key so far, with Bulgarian capital Sofia believed to be interested in bidding after they failed to meet IOC requirements with their mooted bid for the 2016 Youth Olympic Games.

There has also been interest from Switzerland in the form of Olympic capital Lausanne and the city of Lucerne, along with two-time Winter Games host city, Lake Placid in the United States.

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