Monday August
28, 2000
Toronto considered
strong contender when IOC set makes cuts for 2008 Games
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International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch
shown in this May 21, 2000 file photo. (CP/Le Soleil - Patrice Laroche) |
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Montreal Gazette) - Less than three
weeks before the opening ceremony in Sydney, the International Olympic Committee is
already turning its attention to Summer Games eight years away.
The IOC executive board meets Monday to name a shortlist of
bid cities for the 2008 Games, trimming a field of 10 applicants to a handful of
finalists. The announcement will come at a news conference Tuesday.
The 10 cities in the 2008 race are Toronto, Bangkok,
Beijing, Cairo, Havana, Istanbul, Paris, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Osaka, Japan, and
Seville, Spain.
Beijing and Paris look certain to make the list, with Osaka
and Toronto also considered to have a good chance. Others such as Istanbul, making its
third straight bid, cannot be ruled out.
Monday's cutoff comes 10½ months before the full IOC
selects the 2008 host city at its session in Moscow in July, 2001.
While the IOC has not specified how many bidders will be
accepted, the number is not expected to exceed four or five.
"The cut will be significant, and half will
remain," IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch said. "We think it is better to
tell those who have minimal prospects this time to stop spending money and get ready for
the next round."
"I should have thought if we couldn't eliminate more
than half, the process is not a success," said IOC vice-president Dick Pound, a
Montreal Lawyer. "I would see a maximum of four getting through."
Toronto, which lost to Atlanta in the 1996 race, appears to
be a potential strong contender and bid officials are quietly confident that they will
make the cut.
"We feel we put in an excellent plan," Toronto
bid chief operating officer Bob Richardson told the Toronto Star over the weekend.
"We feel we've met or exceeded all the technical requirements of the IOC, so if the
short list is indeed based on what was outlined we're confident we'll be a strong
contender."
Should Toronto make the shortlist, the bid committee will
have the opportunity to hold a news conference during next month's Games in Sydney to
showcase their bid to the world's media. Each city will also be allowed, under IOC rules,
to have a small display table and a single suite at the IOC hotel in Sydney.
"We want to show the IOC that we have what we think is
the best plan for the Olympic Games in 2008," said Richardson.
The bid committee also plans to send 25 former Olympians to
Australia to promote Toronto as an athlete-friendly bid.
But not everyone wants to see the Games come to Toronto. A
delegation from Northern Ontario is also travelling to Switzerland on Monday to present
the IOC with 5,000 letters protesting a proposal that would see Toronto send its garbage
to an abandoned mine near Kirkland Lake, Ont.
The 11-member IOC executive board will seek to make the
selection by consensus. If that fails, a vote will be taken.
In the event of a vote, those members from countries with
applicant cities will abstain. That would mean Samaranch (Spain), Pound (Canada), Chiharu
Igaya (Japan) and He Zhenliang (China).
The new "candidate acceptance procedure" was
introduced as part of the reforms adopted by the IOC last year following the bribery
scandal centring on Salt Lake City's winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games.
The process is designed to save money, weed out no-hopers
and prevent a repetition of the payoffs and favours exposed by the Salt Lake affair.
Gifts and member visits to bid cities are prohibited under
the new system.
The cities go through a preliminary screening process to
determine whether they meet the minimum organizational requirements for staging the
Olympics.
The 2008 applicants responded to an IOC questionnaire
covering issues such as political and public support, general and sports infrastructure,
logistics and experience, and financing. A small group of IOC officials have studied the
replies and compiled a report for the executive board.
Those making the cut will be classified as official
candidate cities. The IOC will appoint an evaluation commission to visit the sites and
prepare a report assessing their capabilities.
Beijing, Istanbul, Paris, Seville and Toronto are all
previous Olympic bidders.
Paris is the only one which has previously staged the
Olympics - in 1900 and 1924. Paris made an unsuccessful bid for the 1992 Games, which went
to Barcelona. The glamour of Paris and France's strong role in the Olympic movement make
it a virtual certainty to make the final list.
Beijing, which lost by two votes to Sydney in the 1993
ballot for the 2000 Games, is widely considered the front-runner.
With its population of 1.26 billion, China offers a vast,
untapped market for the Olympics. But China's human rights record could again be a major
issue, as pro-Tibet groups have already threatened to wage a campaign against Beijing's
bid.
Osaka, Japan's second largest city, shapes up as Beijing's
main Asian rival as it seeks to bring the Summer Olympics to Japan for the first time
since Tokyo staged the 1964 Games.
Istanbul's third consecutive bid is boosted by the Olympic
Law enacted by the Turkish Parliament in 1992. The legislation has enabled the city to
improve its infrastructure, invest in new sports facilities and upgrade existing ones.
Seville, which held the 1999 world track and field
championships, hopes to improve on its failed attempt for the 2004 Olympics.
Bangkok hosted the Asian Games in 1998, while Kuala Lumpur
staged the Commonwealth Games the same year. Cairo is the sole entry from Africa, the only
continent which has never staged the Olympics.
Havana is considered a long shot.
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