Winter Games Candidates React to Successful IOC Presentations
May 19, 2011
The 2018 Olympic Winter Games’ three Candidate Cities – Munich (Germany), Annecy (France) and PyeongChang (South Korea) [1] – presented their candidatures to members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at The Olympic Museum in Lausanne yesterday, May 18.
The 2018 Candidate Cities’ Briefing for IOC Members concludes today, May 19, with each city meeting separately with the members. The cities will have the opportunity to answer follow-up questions about their projects from the members in the morning, followed by the media in the afternoon.
IOC President Jacques Rogge said: “Today all three cities made impressive presentations. For the past decade, a tremendous amount of dedication and hard work has been invested by the IOC to improve the evaluation process. We believe that we now have in place a sophisticated procedure, and the technical briefings provide an excellent opportunity for IOC members and Candidate Cities alike. This meeting gives the IOC members greater clarity concerning each city’s bid, which is crucial for them when making their evaluations and ultimately, the most informed decision possible in July.”
This week’s Briefing follows last week’s release of the 2018 Evaluation Commission Report, which was drafted following four-day visits by the Evaluation Commission to the Candidate Cities in February and March. This is the second time that the Candidate Cities have had the opportunity to brief the members in such a manner and all three will have one final opportunity to do so prior to the IOC members casting their votes in July 6 election in Durban, South Africa.
Munich bid CEO Berhnard Schwank stated: “We did our best today. It went really well. We were a team. I think we were able to present the real strengths and message of the Munich bid and why Munich. The IOC is facing different challenges at the moment. It’s time now to meet these challenges concerning environmental sustainability and reaching young people. We think can cover these with the Munich bid.”
After Annecy had been seen as an underdog for much of the bidding process, IOC member and supporter of the French city’s bid, Jean-Claude Killy looked to refute such assumptions, saying: “We are on a par with the others [Munich and PyeongChang]. We are a good team with a good proposition. We think we have nothing to envy in the propositions of the other bids.”
Yang Ho Cho, bid chairman of PyeongChang, the candidate who many feel is a real frontrunner in the race, also expressed his satisfaction at the success of their presentation, adding: “I am not in a position to judge whether we improved our position, but we have full confidence. I am not in a position to say we are better or worse – but we did our best. We stuck to our message, New Horizons.”
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