The London Evening Standard published a report that British Olympic Officials have denied the existence of a deal with the Canadian Olympic Committee regarding London and Toronto Olympic Bids. This news comes amid escalating media speculation in both Europe and North America that Toronto may be forced to drop their potential 2012 bid.
The issue focuses on a previous report by the Evening Standard on May 29, 1998 that tells of a “memorandum of understanding” between British and Canadian Olympic Associations designed to encourage “…the BOA to concentrate their efforts on 2012 and give Toronto a free run at 2008”. The report doesn’t comment on Canada’s contribution to the deal except that it was “designed to help forge greater links and co-operation between sports authorities in Britain and Canada”.
Having reported on the memorandum in 1998, GamesBids.com attempted to get clarification on the issue earlier this month through a London source who then contacted the BOA. According to the recent Evening Standard report, the BOA had been searching its files to find this document.
After finding the original memorandum, BOA chief executive Simon Clegg told the Evening Standard “The Memorandum does not mention Olympic bids. We started looking after there was speculation in the Canadian media that the Memorandum contained some agreement about the bidding process.”
“It took a little bit of time to find it. We have had three lawyers working with us since then and I spoke to all three (to try to find it).”
Speculation remains that there may have been an unwritten deal between the two groups, possibly one that asks Toronto to step aside for a London 2012 bid. That may be impossible to verify since of the two principals, former Canadian Olympic Committee CEO Carol Anne Letheren is now deceased and British IOC member Craig Reedie told the Standard that “he cannot remember the discussions very well”.
The memorandum and any agreement would have occured before the Salt Lake Voting Scandal broke, in an era where the Olympic bid process and surrounding activities were often shrouded in secrecy. The existence of any agreement now would likely not be tolerated by the IOC and would be detrimental to the two bids.
London will announce their 2012 bidding intentions in January and Toronto will likely bid only if Vancouver fails to win their campaign for the 2010 Winter Games. Toronto came second behind Beijing in their 2008 Olympic bid.
