Tokyo and Beijing will get torched by the Olympics

TOKYO and Beijing are still celebrating the news that they will host the 2020 Summer and 2022 Winter Olympics respectively. But it's time to congratulate the real winners: all the cities that have decided to steer clear of competing for the honour.

Last week, Boston shocked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by withdrawing its bid for the 2024 Summer Games after residents baulked at the soaring price tag. Similar outcries in Oslo, Munich and Stockholm led those cities to drop their 2022 bids, leaving the IOC to choose, awkwardly, between two cities (Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan) that lack snow and winter-sports cultures.

Winning the Olympics clearly cheered Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is having a tough year amid slowing growth and plunging stocks. The news that Beijing will become the first city to stage both the Winter and Summer Olympics offers Mr Xi a fresh opportunity to drum up nationalism among his 1.3 billion people and build on the soft power China amassed during the 2008 Games.