IMPRESSIONS OF THE FOUR CANDIDATE CITIES

The four candidate cities bidding to host the Games of the xxxi Olympiad in 2016-Chicago (USA), Toyo (Japan), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), and Madrid (Spain) were all at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne (Switzerland) today to give a technical briefing to the 93 members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who were present for the event. Today’s presentations , which resulted in dozens of detailed question, will be followed tomorrow by an opportunity for members to ask more follow-up questions to each city about their projects, as well as giving the media an opportunity to meet with each of the Candidate Cities.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said,” Since my election in 2001, we have been making a concerted effort at the IOC to improve our transfer of knowledge capacities and to ensure the evaluation process continues to be clear and offers criteria from which the cities can be evaluated. The fact that we have four cities with very strong projects bidding for the 2016 Games is testament to that work and to the success of recent edition of the Games. As part of the natural evolution of our effort, today’s briefings are allowing us to continue to bring more transparency, fairness and professionalism to the evaluation process, which has been underlined by the active participation of my fellow members.” The briefing comes closely on the heels of the four-day visits of the IOC’s Evaluation Commission, led by IOC Member Newel EL Moutawakel, to each of the Candidate Cities. The Commission is now in the process of producing its evaluation report, which will be distributed to the IOC member no later than one month before election day. The final vote will be held in Copenhagen (Denmark) on 2 October 2009.

IOC Olympic Games Executive Director Gilbert Filly commented, “ Under the leadership of President Rogge, the IOC has developed a strong focus on the transfer of knowledge between Games, in order to ensure that the Games remain as the number one sporting event in the world. The bid process is also a part of that, and there was a strong feeling, following the 2014 bid, that a technical meeting like today’s would be useful for all the concerned. We have taken that feed back on board and all the Candidate Cities now have and additional opportunity to make their case in detail, on an equal platform and in a less formal way than at Session at which the host city is elected.

By Wannipa Khaengkit