Rogge Claims Winter Games ’18 Bidding Race is ‘Very Close’

IOC president Jacques Rogge claims that he expects the race for the 2018 Winter Olympics to go right to the wire, after Annecy, Munich and PyeongChang had made 45-minute presentations to IOC members Wednesday, May 18, at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

Rogge stated: “I think it’s very close. Don’t ask me numbers. I don’t see a big gap between cities,” adding that he was pleased with the standard of presentations at the bid cities briefing to 88 IOC members. 

He added: “We had three very good presentations emanating from very well-organised bids and these bids come from countries that are also very well-organised in terms of winter sport… good experience and a stable economy.

“Whoever wins will definitely be able to stage very good Games.” 

Rogge said the 2018 bids had made significant progress since the IOC named the candidate cities following the IOC Evaluation Commission’s report last week, another milestone in the bidding process.

He said: “The progress has been fuelled by their own experience but also by the evaluation commission because it has given very valuable advice to the candidate cities and the cities have adapted their plans to the observations of the commission.”

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