The Canadian Olympic Association is probably thanking the International Olympic Committee for getting them out of a sticky situation.
The IOC’s executive board decided Friday it would change the deadline cities bidding for the 2012 Games could announce their intentions. Instead of getting letters from the cities in September 2003, the executive said it wanted to make the cut-off date at the end of June 2003. That would have put the Canadian Olympic Association in a dilemma, since Toronto might have announced their intentions to bid for 2012 before it was announced whether Vancouver had won the 2010 Winter Games.
Canadian Olympic officials had said they wouldn’t let Toronto enter a bid until Vancouver’s fate was dealt with, but the executive boards’ decision would’ve forced Toronto to get COA approval for a bid just days before the Vancouver vote.
The Toronto Star reports that IOC secretary general Francois Carrard told reporters in Lausanne Sunday that it hadn’t realized the impact a late June cut-off for 2012 cities would have on the 2010 bidding and now its looking to change the 2012 date until sometime after the 2010 vote.
