As a member of Germany’s National Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee, Roland Baar is in a good position to evaluate Germany’s 2012 Summer Olympic Bid.
When asked during an interview with faz.com about what his colleagues on the International Olympic Committee thought about the German bid, Baar said “good things – at least about Germany wanting to be involved. We have strong chances within the field of the international competition”.
When asked what the IOC members associated with the various German bid cities, Baar said they associated the Ruhr district, and the industrial region with Dusseldorf; the airport and the banking metropolis with Frankfurt; the port with Hamburg; track and field, the 1986 European championships and the 1993 World Championships with Stuttgart; “and not too much yet” with Leipzig.
He said there was clearly a need to develop the sort of distinctive image that cities like Istanbul, London, Madrid, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and even New York and Tel Aviv have long since enjoyed. “Yet in the meantime the German bid will remain bogged down for another year in the national five-way contest”.
He added that the special thing about one bid is that there is not an actual or would-be capital city involved. “German sport cuts a high calibre-figure on the international stage, and the German city that makes the bid will have to combine that with local elements. All that takes time”, said Baar.
Baar acknowledges that “Olympic trench warfare already exists…We need a German applicant city that we are all 100 per cent behind as soon as possible. That way we’ll bring the Games to Germany. It may sound naïve, but otherwise we don’t stand a chance internationally”.
