As soon as all the 2012 bid books are officially submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by November 15, the five cities bidding for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games can, as New York’s Mayor said Thursday, “turn it up a notch”.
At a ceremony in New York Thursday held to send New York’s 600-page bid book to the (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “we’re going to turn it up a notch and for the next eight months we’re going to work harder than ever to get the Summer Games for 2012 right here where they belong”.
Reuters reports that although New York 2012 says publicly they are convinced that their proposal will be judged on its merits when International Olympic Committee (IOC) members settle down to read their proposal next week, they concede privately that outside factors could weigh on their bid in the final months of the race.
But Joe Kriegel, executive director of the bid said, “we’re talking about something that is going to happen eight months from now. None of us know what will be going on in the world at that point in time. We’re confident that the New York bid is going to get a fair hearing and will be judged on its merits”.
Moscow deputy Mayor Valery Shantsev says he doesn’t mind the fact that Moscow is considered the rank outsider in the 2012 race. He said, “let all those who have labelled us total outsiders keep on talking. The more they talk about it the better it is for us because they’ll be so much more disappointed at the end”.
Shantsev acknowledged that Moscow needed to overcome such major hurdles as traffic jams, a shortage of suitable hotels and inadequate airports, to win the bid. He said, “in a sense, I’m glad that we have so many problems because if we get the Olympics we will deal with all of them”.
London 2012’s head Sebastian Coe identifies Britain’s proud sporting heritage as the key factor in its bid for the Games. He told Reuters, “I want to tap into the United Kingdom’s passion for sports”.
Coe said he wasn’t upset that London was not the favourite. “I learned to never get too excited about who is best and worst”, he said. “This is a long, long process. It is the nature of the campaign to have twists and turns. But we want every variable we have control over to be the best”.
Madrid 2012’s head Feliciano Mayoral praised Madrid’s bid saying, “Madrid is an open, welcoming city. People can enjoy its good food, its bars, its legendary nightlife and that’s an extra that very few other cities can guarantee”.
He added, “Madrid is the ideal size for the Olympics. Some bigger cities don’t have the infrastructure capable of holding the Games, but we do”. He told Reuters, “we are the only major European capital not to have organized the Games before and we believe our time has come”.
But Angeles Nieto, regional coordinator for the green group Environmentalists in Action was concerned about Madrid’s pollution. He said, “the quality of the air is very poor and frankly we don’t see this changing between now and 2012”.
In many circles Paris 2012 is believed to be the frontrunner, but Philippe Baudillon, general director of the Paris bid rejects any suggestion that Paris might be better placed than the four other cities bidding for the 2012 Games.
He told Reuters, “the four other bids are excellent. I certainly do not see us as favourites”.
But Paris 2012 spokesman Jerome Lenfant said, “it’s better to start as favourites than to be the underdogs. But anything can happen in the nine months before the decision”.
Paris 2012 chose as its slogan “L’amour des Jeux” (Love of the Games) and Lenfant insists it was not pure propaganda. He said the fact that Paris has already bid twice for the Games proves how badly France wants the Olympics.
