Just days after the applications for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games were sent to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Doha and Tokyo, two of the seven cities bidding for the Summer Games, are looking to the host city decision in October 2009.
The Doha 2016 bid committee launched its new “interim” website which the bid committee says will be followed by a comprehensive state-of-the-art website currently in development to be launched later this year. The website can be visited at www.doha2016.org.qa.
The site provides information about the key elements of the city’s bid, including details about Qatar’s sporting history, culture and technical infrastructure, and information about the members of Doha 2016.
Hassan Ali Bin Ali, Chairman of the bid committee said, “hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Doha would bring the Olympic flame to the Arabic-speaking world for the first time, extending the Olympic ideals to millions of new hearts and minds. Our new website reveals the compelling story of why Doha would be a wonderful host city for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, together with the details of our exciting and innovative bid proposals”.
He added, “our vision for the Games will be focused on our shared future – the world’s youth – particularly those disadvantaged either economically or through disability. It will also engage and inspire Arab youth to better understand the wider world and the youth of the rest of the world to gain a true picture of Arab culture and hospitality”.
Meanwhile Tokyo 2016 is hoping its compact plan will impress the International Olympic Committee (IOC). According to the Associated Press Tokyo is selling its bid as the most compact and efficient in the history of the Olympics with almost all venues within a radius of about six miles of the city centre.
Governor Shintaro Ishihara, President of Tokyo 2016 said, “winning the bid is no easy task, but Tokyo is determined to demonstrate its hosting capability and vigorously promote the bid campaign with the support of the government, the JOC and the public”.
The centrepiece of Tokyo’s bid is a 100,000-seat stadium in Tokyo’s waterfront. The athletes village will feature five high-rise buildings on a landfill island in Tokyo Bay, reports the Associated Press.
