2018 Winter Games Rivals Present Bids at SportAccord

Yesterday’s, April 7, SportAccord Convention date in London saw the race to host the 2018 Winter Olympics gather pace as Munich, Annecy and PyeongChang pitched their bids for the Games to the international sporting community.

The first presentation from Munich, highlighted the financial strength of the German bid before Annecy underlined its Alpine traditions in the second slot and then PyeongChang pledged a US$500m Olympic investment program in the final presentation.

Munich’s presentation focused on Germany’s record as a leader in sponsorship of winter sports with Ian Robertson, BMW’s head of sales and marketing, revealing that German companies fund 50 per cent of the revenues of the seven winter Olympic sports federations.

Katarina Witt, the two-time figure skating gold medal-winner who chairs the Munich bid, said: “We are not just promising full stadia; we guarantee full stadia.”

Issues surrounding the German city’s bid regard some landowners in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which would host the Alpine ski events in 2018, refusing to give up their land for the Olympics, and a referendum on the bid will be held in the town on May 8.

However, Thomas Bach, the IOC executive board member who oversees the German city’s bid, insisted in a press conference that the matter has “not been discussed” at the IOC, and Munich 2018 leaders are confident of a positive result in the referendum.

Annecy bid CEO Charles Beigbeder promised “an authentic Games in the heart of the mountains” that would reunite the “rich heritage of the Alps with the Olympic Movement”. Jean-Claude Killy appeared in a video to support the bid, with Beigbeder playing down the absence of the French IOC member by saying in a press conference: “Jean-Claude is fully supportive of our plans.”

PyeongChang, which is making its third successive bid after narrow defeats in the votes to host the 2010 and 2014 Olympics, underlined its ‘New Horizons’ message in the final presentation of the day.

Bid leader Cho Yang-ho stated: “This is a historic choice and a historic chance for the Olympic movement. We want to give 650 million young people in new markets the opportunity and the access to enjoy winter sport.”

South Korean Sports and Culture Minister Choung Byoung-gug announced that the government would invest $500m in a ‘Drive the Dream’ fund to develop Korean winter sports athletes through to 2018.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will vote on the winning bid on July 6 in Durban, South Africa.