ALMATY, Kazakhstan — The last time this happened — that is, the last time a former Soviet republic from Central Asia bid to host an Olympics — the entire thing was a joke. A lark. A laugh.
哈萨克斯坦阿拉木图——这样的事情上一次发生时——也就是上一次一个中亚的前苏联加盟共和国申办奥运会时——整件事就是个笑话、是场闹剧，人们一笑了之。
This was in 1992, when Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, bid for the 2000 Summer Games. At the time, Tashkent’s committee leaders readily admitted that, should they win, they would need to build 24 venues including a regulation-size swimming pool as well as a few other nagging items, like hotels, an airport and a hospital. Just one year after the fall of the Soviet Union, the people of Tashkent were fully aware that they were dreaming.
那是1992年，乌兹别克斯坦首都塔什干申请主办2000年夏季奥运会。当时，塔什干奥申委的主管们很快承认，一旦申请成功，他们需要建设24处场地，包括一个符合规定大小的游泳池和其他一些麻烦的设施，如几家酒店、一座机场和一家医院。当时距离苏联解体不过一年，塔什干人民完全明白，这是在做梦。

More than two decades later, however, the executives in charge of bringing the 2022 Winter Olympics here, to Kazakhstan’s former capital and current commercial hub, are far more serious.
但是，20多年后的今天，哈萨克斯坦的主管们却要严肃得多，他们将为阿拉木图——以前的首都、现在的商业中心——争取2022年冬季奥运会的主办权。
They do not care that many fans (and perhaps even some International Olympic Committee members) may struggle to find their country — the ninth largest in the world — on a map. They do not care that many experts believe the oft-cited notion of using an Olympics as a means of transforming a country with any number of problems — including a troubling human rights record — is pure myth. And they certainly do not care that some observers have labeled this the worst bidding race in Olympic history after a slew of cities pulled out, leaving behind a particularly bizarre pair.
他们不在乎很多奥运迷，甚至包括一些国际奥委会(International Olympic Committee)委员，可能要费点力气才能在地图上找到这个面积在全球排第九的国家。经常有人谈到，一个问题丛生的国家（包括令人担忧的人权记录）可以通过办奥运来改变自己，尽管很多专家认为这样的想法一点也不现实（但这一点他们也不在乎）。一些观察家将这届申办活动称为奥运史上最糟糕的角逐，因为在大量城市退出后，只剩下了两座候选城市的奇怪组合（这一点他们同样不在乎）。
The candidates? Almaty, a city you may or may not have heard of (it is pronounced Al-MAH-tee), and Beijing, a city you surely have heard of but perhaps not for its winter sports history.
哪两个城市？一个你可能听说过，也可能没听说过的城市阿拉木图，以及一个你肯定听说过，但或许不是因为冬季运动史而熟悉的城市北京。
“None of this concerns us,” Akhmetzhan Yessimov, the mayor of Almaty, said through an interpreter in a recent interview at his office. “We want to win.”
“这些对我们没什么影响，”阿拉木图市长阿赫梅特江·叶西莫夫(Akhmetzhan Yessimov)最近在办公室通过翻译接受采访时表示。“我们要赢得这次主办权。”
He shrugged. “Once you say you are a mushroom, you might as well get into the soup.”
他耸了耸肩。“既然说自己是个蘑菇，不妨就做个汤，看看到底怎么样。”
And yet, still: This soup is tricky. Yes, Almaty has put together a bid that is comprehensive and original, and it has become a legitimate contender as one bidder after another has dropped out citing either costs or a lack of public support. But winning July’s I.O.C. vote, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur, is another matter. And there is no question that Almaty is the underdog.
但是，这锅汤可没那么好炖。没错，阿拉木图已经拿出比较完整而有新意的申办计划，而且在一个接一个申办城市因为缺少资金或缺少公众支持的理由退出之后，阿拉木图已经成为一个说得过去的争夺者。但是能不能在7月份在吉隆坡举行的国际奥委会最终投票中获胜却是另一回事。而且，阿拉木图显然是不被看好的一方。
Much of that has to do with its competition. Beijing, despite political and environmental concerns, put on a remarkable Olympics in 2008. But those were the Summer Games, Almaty advocates are quick to point out, and so Beijing would be essentially fabricating a Winter Games setup with buckets of cash, a far-flung layout and a culture for winter sports that might generously be described as “developing.”
这主要和它的竞争对手有关。尽管在政治和环境上存在问题，但北京在2008年举办了一场出色的奥运会。但阿拉木图的支持者急切地指出，那是夏季奥运会。所以北京要做的实际上是砸很多钱，生造出冬季奥运会的场景——在偏远的地点建造场地，培育冬季运动的文化。而这种文化，用慷慨的措辞也只能形容为“正在发展”。
Unfortunately for Almaty, I.O.C. rules resulting from a scandal related to the awarding of the 2002 Salt Lake City Games prohibit any of the 101 members who will vote on the bid from visiting either bid city beforehand. In Beijing’s case, that is probably a good thing; most people affiliated with the Olympic movement still have positive feelings from 2008.
对阿拉木图来说，不幸的是，自2001年盐湖城冬奥会出现行贿丑闻之后，国际奥委会禁止参与投票的101位成员事前访问任一座申办城市。对北京而言，这可能是好事；大部分与奥运会紧密相关的人士，都因2008年奥运会对北京保持着正面印象。
For Almaty, though, the rules clearly hurt. The country gained its independence in 1991 and has gone through a whirlwind development process covering everything from its oil-based economy to its nascent government structure to its presence in global sport.
但这些规则对阿拉木图明显不利。自1991年取得独立以来，它经历了一个各方面都快速发展的过程，不管是以石油为基础的经济，还是年轻的政府组织结构，还是目前对全球体育赛事的参与。
As Andrey Kryukov, the vice chairman of Almaty’s bid, said: “There are a lot of former Soviet states — a lot of ‘-stans.’ But we are the most advanced. We are the strongest. We want to be able to show that to the voters, and we are not allowed.”
就像阿拉木图奥申委副主席安德烈·克留科夫(Andrey Kryukov)所说，“有很多前苏联加盟共和国，它们也叫‘某某斯坦’，但我们是其中最先进、最强大的。我们想把这些展示给决定申办权的投票人，但这样做是不允许的。”
The strength of Almaty’s bid, its organizers say, lies in its compressed nature and its authenticity. (The bid’s slogan, in a not-so-veiled jab at Beijing, is “Keeping It Real.”) While some might reflexively link Almaty, as a former Soviet city, to Sochi, there are almost no similarities in their bids. The Sochi Games cost upward of $50 billion, and when construction was finished (or, in some cases, not finished), those Olympics had the vague feel of being held on a Hollywood movie set.
阿拉木图申奥活动的组织者们表示，它的优势在于城市比较紧凑，主办方真实可靠。（它的申奥口号是“保持真实”，其中带有对北京并不那么含蓄的挑衅。）尽管有些人可能会条件反射地把前苏联城市阿拉木图和曾经举办过冬季奥运会的索契联系起来，但二者的申奥行动几乎没有任何相似之处。索契冬奥会资金投入超过500亿美金，建筑工程完成（确切讲有些地方还未完成）之时，这场奥运会已经让人隐隐约约地感觉到，仿佛是在好莱坞的电影布景里举行的。
In Almaty, every venue is within a radius of about 18 miles. One hockey arena has been built and another will be completed — with or without the Olympics — for the University Games, which are set for 2017. The speedskating events would be held at Medeu, an outdoor oval perched on the shelf of a mountain more than a mile above sea level, and the ski jump venue will be visible from office windows in the city’s metropolitan center.
在阿拉木图，每个场地都相距不超过18英里（约合29公里）。一座冰球赛场已经建成，另一座在建，它是为2017年在此举行的世界大学生冬季运动会做准备，不管是否举办奥运会都会建成。速度滑冰赛将在梅杰乌(Medeu)举行，比赛场地是位于海拔一英里的山腰处的椭圆形露天赛场。而跳台滑雪比赛场地，在市中心的办公楼里，透过窗口就可以看到。
When inspectors from the I.O.C. visited Almaty a few months ago — in a particularly convoluted process, these officials do not vote on the bids but instead report to executives who do — Mr. Kryukov claimed that the feedback was virtually all positive.
几个月前，国际奥委会视察人员到访阿拉木图，克留科夫表示，他们给出的基本都是正面反馈。这些视察官员不参与投票，但他们会向参与投票的高层人员汇报，这是一个非常非常复杂的过程。
Last week, when Almaty and Beijing gave presentations to about 85 of the I.O.C. members, Almaty’s, which featured numerous photographs of deep snow — another apparent dig at Beijing’s bid — seemed well received.
上周，阿拉木图和北京向约占总人数85%的国际奥委会成员做了申奥陈述。阿拉木图的报告用到很多大雪覆盖的图片——明显对北京又是一击——似乎得到了不错的反应。
“I think they attracted the attention of people who may not have been convinced before,” the Canadian I.O.C. member Dick Pound told reporters afterward. “It looks to me like they figured out all of the weaknesses of the competitors and they just nailed the differences — snow, water, air, experience.”
“我觉得他们成功吸引了之前不太信服的那部分人，”来自加拿大的奥委会委员迪克·庞德(Dick Pound)事后对记者们讲到。“在我看来，他们很清楚对手的弱点，完全踩到了点上——雪、水、空气、体验。”
Much of the optimism from Almaty’s organizers stems from the positive response to how it has hewed to the ideals laid out by Thomas Bach, the president of the I.O.C., whose Olympic Agenda 2020 initiative seeks to reform a bidding process that had become particularly onerous and unappealing to potential Olympic hosts.
阿拉木图严格遵守国际奥委会主席托马斯·巴赫(Thomas Bach)提出的理想做法，外界对此给予了积极的反馈，阿拉木图组织方的乐观，很大程度上来自于此。原有的申奥程序对潜在的举办国而言，已经变得极为繁琐、缺乏吸引力，巴赫主席领导制定的《奥林匹克2020议程》(Olympic Agenda 2020)致力于改革这一程序。
High costs and waning public support were a significant part of the reason other potential bidders for the 2022 Games — including Munich, Stockholm, a combined bid from the Tyrol region in Austria and Italy, and, very late in the process, Oslo — fell over one another while backing out. Concerns about useless infrastructure, overcrowded streets and white-elephant venues have made Winter Olympics bidding a hard sell to voters.
高昂的费用和日益减少的公众支持是2022年冬奥会其他潜在申请者——包括慕尼黑、斯德哥尔摩、奥地利和意大利交界处的蒂罗尔地区（两国联合申请），以及在最后阶段加入的奥斯陆——争先恐后退出的一个重要因素。因为担心会带来无用的基础建设、街道拥挤问题，以及成本高昂却用处不大的比赛场地，很难说服选民支持冬奥会。
“The trend that ought to be worrying lovers of sport,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, “is that it is increasingly autocrats who aren’t going to face any domestic criticism that are the only ones who want to pay for these mega sporting events.”
“有一种趋势可能正在让体育爱好者感到担忧，”人权观察(Human Rights Watch)全球倡导总监胡丹(Minky Worden)说。“愿意为这类宏大赛事买单的人，只有那些不会在国内受到任何批评的独裁者。这种现象越来越明显。”
That is one of the larger criticisms of Almaty. Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has been leading the country since 1989, and while public elections are now held — Mr. Nazarbayev won another term in April by gaining roughly 98 percent of the votes — the idea that Kazakhstan is anything close to a full, free democracy is a long way off, experts said.
那是对阿拉木图的诸多批评中比较严重的一个。哈萨克斯坦总统努尔苏丹·纳扎尔巴耶夫(Nursultan Nazarbayev)自1989年开始领导这个国家，尽管实行公开选举——纳扎尔巴耶夫今年4月以将近98%的多票数赢得新一任任期——但专家们表示，哈萨克斯坦要实现真正自由的民主政治，还有很长的路要走。
Mihra Rittmann, who covers Kazakhstan for Human Rights Watch, said her organization had seen a sharp decline in basic freedoms there since 2011, when a prolonged strike by oil workers ended in government-sanctioned violence and reports of torture.
人权观察驻哈萨克斯坦负责人米赫拉·里特曼(Mihra Rittmann)表示，2011年以来，她的组织观察到，这里的基本自由空间急剧下降。当时一场石油工人发起的持久罢工，遭遇政府支持的武力镇压，之后还传出了使用酷刑拷问的报道。
Since then, Ms. Rittmann said, there have been tighter restrictions on religion and freedom of assembly, as well as an even greater obscuring of governmental accountability.
里特曼表示，自此之后，这里对于宗教和自由集会活动的限制更加严格，对政府的问责却更加模糊。
“In some ways, it is what we call a quiet repression in Kazakhstan, but the crackdown that took place after the 2011 episode was a very, very low point,” Ms. Rittmann said. “People were killed.”
“在某种程度上，现在哈萨克斯坦有一种我们称为‘安静的压制’的状态，不过2011年那起事件后实施的镇压是最恶劣的时间点，很多人因此被杀害，”里特曼说。
Other groups are concerned with the ecological situation in Almaty. Beijing’s choking pollution is well documented, but Almaty’s is not much better, according to Abay Yerekenov, an environmental activist in the city, who called the air quality “appalling.”
还有一些组织担心阿拉木图的生态状况。北京令人窒息的环境污染已经有详尽报道，但阿拉木图的状况也没有好太多。该市一位环境倡导人士阿巴伊·耶列科诺夫(Abay Yerekenov)表示，这里的空气质量“骇人听闻”。
There is also significant concern about a law, passed by the country’s senate this year, that is believed to have language similar to Russia’s “sexual propaganda” statute, according to Amnesty International. The law, which has not been made available in its entirety for review by outside organizations, is said to be under consideration by Mr. Nazarbayev.
此外，还有一项法律引发的严重担忧。国际特赦组织(Amnesty International)称，该国参议院今年通过的一项立法据信含有与俄罗斯的“性取向宣传”法令类似的言辞。据称，纳扎尔巴耶夫正在考虑采纳这项法律。外部组织还无法查看该法的完整版。
In its call for opposition to the law, Amnesty International said that “the potent combination of legal discrimination and street homophobia seen over the past few years in Kazakhstan’s northern neighbor is now brewing as well in the Central Asian giant.”
国际特赦组织在号召反对该法时表示，“过去几年里，哈萨克斯坦的北方邻国出现了法律歧视和街头恐同的强力结合。眼下在中亚大国哈萨克斯坦，这种组合也在酝酿之中。”
Ms. Worden, of Human Rights Watch, said her organization generally stayed away from ranking or directly comparing the situations in different countries, but she sighed when asked about the reality of the 2022 vote. Come July, someone will win: either Almaty, whose human rights record is lesser known but still poor; or Beijing, which is enduring China’s “worst crackdown in the post-1989 period across the board,” Ms. Worden said.
人权观察组织的胡丹表示，她所在的机构通常不会对不同国家的情况进行排名或直接比较。不过，在被问及2022年冬奥会主办权投票的现实时，她叹了口气。胡丹说，到了7月，总有一方会胜出：要么是人权记录不大为人所知但还是颇为糟糕的阿拉木图，要么是正在经历中国“1989年之后最为严重的全面打压”的北京。
“This isn’t a situation where it’s one country that’s O.K. against another that’s not,” she said. “This is something that ought to be keeping the I.O.C. up at night.”
“这次的情况并不是一个国家还可以，另一个不行，”她说。“这种局面应该让国际奥委会夜不能寐。”