Toronto Bid officials are in Moscow working feverishly to put the finishing touches on their official booth at the Mezhdunarodnaya Hotel where all five bid cities have small booths to promote their bids.
James Villeneuve, head of international relations for the bid, said there’s a lot of logistical work involved. “We had a staff meeting this morning and we went through what the next few days are going to look like. You have to have cars arranged and restaurants and figure who’s going to engage who and when and where, pick up the accrediations, all that stuff”.
TO-Bid’s Chief Operating Officer Bob Richards said, “I think we may know fairly early this week” how Toronto is faring. “We’ve been very cautious. Most of the people we wouldn’t know much about we put as supporting other cities, but we may be surprised”.
There are posters for the IOC annual session all over the hotel. One of them says “Thank you” in five languages and shows Juan Antonio Samaranch in a warm jacket and a Russian hat. Another says “New President for a New Millennium” and shows photos of alll previous IOC presidents, then a darkened profit with a question mark on it.
The profile appears to be a man, which means somebody has ruled out Anita DeFrantz of the U.S.
Uniformed men are stationed around the International Hotel, which houses the Olympic family, and the adjacent International Trade Centre, site of the IOC Session. No one can enter either premises without proper identification.
Even the Marriott Grand Hotel, home to the Toronto delegation’s more than 200 members, and the Radisson Hotel, the media headquarters, are also in the restricted category.
In the race for the IOC presidency, Canada’s Dick Pound seems to be trailing Belgium’s Dr. Jacques Rogge and Korea’s Un-yong Kim.
Reports say that Pound didn’t help himself by suggesting that Beijing should be given preference over Toronto because China has never had the Games. He omitted to mention Beijing’s shortcomings, such as human rights issues and the death penalty.
And some IOC members are saying that if Pound cannot be loyal to his own Canadian city, how can he remain loyal to the IOC?
