With Monday’s deadline almost here for the five cities bidding for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games to have their bid books at International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters in Lausanne Switzerland, London 2012 organizers have been staging a series of high-profile events to promote its bid.
Sunday morning London 2012 bid head Sebastian Coe handed London’s bid book to 14-year-old Amber Charles, a junior international basketball player from East London, who will deliver the 600-page document to IOC headquarters.
Sunday night British rower Sir Steve Redgrave and the four sprinters who won gold at Athens 2004 will switch on the Christmas lights in London’s Oxford Street. The lights will be in the colours of London’s 2012 bid – blue, yellow, black, green, red and white.
Also, 100 black taxis in London decked out in London 2012 logo and colours will be unveiled, with some tube trains to follow with the same décor.
London 2012 officials say they have “solid and consistent support of between two-thirds and more than 70 per cent across the country”, but board members are worried that independent polling for the IOC being conducted around the country this month will show that its lower.
Despite its concerns about moderate public enthusiasm, London 2012’b bid team say they remain upbeat, benefiting from an apparent upsurge in momentum during and since the Athens 2004 Games.
In May the IOC ranked London sixth out of the nine bid cities involved at the time, and senior strategists reportedly admit London is still third or at best joint second with Madrid in IOC members’ preferences.
On GamesBids.com its recently released bid index showed London in third place behind Paris and Madrid.
Meanwhile, an IOC evaluation commission arrives in London February 16, and to prepare for the visit which is crucial in determining which bid city will host the 2012 Summer Games, bid officials are to take part in a series of role-playing exercises in late January in an attempt to replicate the tough questioning they will face form the commission, reports the London Telegraph.
The group of experts will be given the same four-day itinerary as the real commission, including site visits and trips on the London Underground, which was criticized for being “obsolete” in the IOC’s preliminary evaluation report earlier this year.
