IOC members set to be hit by election fever

Lausanne, July 2:  Electioneering fever will hit the Swiss city of Lausanne this week as the three cities bidding for the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympics and the six men vying to succeed Jacqes Rogge as International Olympic Committee (IOC) president will make presentations to their electorate the IOC members.
While both those final decisions will come in September in Buenos Aires – the 7th for the city and the 10th for the presidency – the host of the 2018 Youth Olympic Games – one of Rogge’s innovations during his 12 year reign – will be designated in a vote on Thursday.
The 2020 Games bid teams from Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo will approach their presentations on Wednesday all in relatively good heart, emboldened by positive assessments by the IOC Evaluation Commission last week.
Istanbul in particular will be keen their effective message about being a bridge to different cultures, religions and generations returns to centre stage after an uncomfortable period when mass street protests round Turkey threatened to destabilise their bid.
Aside from that the question marks raised by the Commission over transport congestion in the city could arise again from other members but Istanbul’s energetic chief executive Hasan Arat believes solving that problem is already well in hand.
“With regards to transport the report also states that we have significantly improved public transport and we have enough funding to continue on the other projects,” he said last week.
Madrid will have an even greater spring in their step and justifiably so after the Evaluation Commission crucially gave them the thumbs up over their relatively modest planned budget for remaining building work should they get the Games.
The Commission said they were confident that the modest budget of 2.37 billion euros ($3.10 billion, £2.01 billion) for fulfilling the remaining building work is feasible.
“As the additional investment required to deliver the Games is relatively modest, the Commission believes that Spanish economy should be able to support the delivery of the Games,” read the report. More (AGENCIES)

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