Madrid 2012 officials sent a letter Thursday to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Athens 2004, protesting Madrid’s exclusion from the Athens 2004 torch relay. The letter was signed by the president of Spain’s Olympic Committee and the mayor of Madrid.
The letter asks that the decision to exclude Madrid be reconsidered. Madrid is upset that while it was excluded from the torch relay, six of its rivals in the 2012 bid were included. And the letter said that New York, Istanbul and Rio de Janeiro had never previously hosted an Olympic Games.
The Spanish Olympic Committee had sent letters to Athens 2004 last February requesting that Madrid be added to the list of torch relay cities, but never received an answer.
Nevertheless the Olympic flame will still visit Spain. The torch relay will be in Barcelona, site of the 1992 Olympic Games, on June 27.
