The three cities bidding for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Vancouver, Pyeongchang and Salzburg are sending bid officials to Buenos Aires, Argentina where the South America Olympic committees will be meeting Monday and Tuesday.
John Furlong, Vancouver 2010’s President and Chief Operating Officer will be joined in Buenos Aires by a Spanish-speaking member of Vancouver’s bid committee.
Canadian (CP) reports that Furlong will be trying to convince the eight or so International Olympic Committee members attending the meeting why they should award the Games to Vancouver. He said he will be listening to how Vancouver can assist the development of winter sports in South American countries.
According to CP, Furlong said, “we have to listen. As much as we want to go down there and tell everybody this is a great city and we have a great concept, we also have to listen to find out what it is they need in terms of an Olympic program. What are the kinds of things we can do to the plan to make it a bit better, to make it more relevant, to help them evaluate it a little bit more. We’ll be looking for the opportunity to talk to many of them about what they’d like to see”.
The national Olympic committees of 15 South American countries are expected to attend the meeting.
Furlong said he will be interested in seeing the other cities’ presentations.
“It is important to have distinctions between you and them. It’s good for those distinctions to be very clear. The differences are sometimes the more important part of your plan than the things that are the same”.
