IOC spotlight on Madrid
May 6th, 2009 | Published in International heat, Road Forward
The International Olympic Committee evaluation team are in Madrid, Spain for their fourth visit to cities bidding for the 2016 Olympics.
The 13-member committee, chaired by Morrocco’s Nawal el Moutawakel, has already visited fellow bid cities, Chicago, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.
The IOC committee will spend five days in the Spanish city.
Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met the committee yesterday and believes Madrid has “reasonable hope” of landing the Olympics.
“I feel reasonable hope about our bid,” Zapatero told Associated Press. “We deserve the Games.”
Zapatero said Madrid’s bid was strong due to unity at all governmental levels, with 77 percent of the infrastructure ready for use, and because of the legacy of the 1992 Barcelona Games, the first games attended by South Africa after re-admission to international sport.
“We are supported by the success of the 1992 Barcelona Games, which showed the world that Spain knows how to do these things,” said Zapatero, who is expected to be in Copenhagen on October 2 when the IOC selects the host city. “We have great capacity to show this to the world.”
“Spain is living a golden age of sport. We are the best in many sports, especially in (soccer),” said Zapatero, who is an avid Barcelona fan. “In many sports our athletes are shining as never before. And across the country there is a movement toward Olympic sports.”
