Alexander Chernov, General Manager of the Moscow 2012 Olympic Bid Committee, told Xinhua that awarding the 2012 Summer Olympic Games to Moscow will be of great significance for the Olympic Movement. He said, “(for Russia) the Olympic Games is more than a sporting event. It’s about pride, it’s about legacy, it’s about heritage”.
He said Moscow is eager to present its “new” image to the world through the Olympic Games.
Dimitri Svatkovsky, Sports Director of Moscow 2012 said, “we are not applying only for the Olympic Games. We are applying for the opportunity to show the world the immense progress that Moscow had made over the last 15 years. We want to show the world that it’s a totally new city”.
Chernov, who along with Svatkovsky attended the Athens Games debriefing in Beijing, said that with more than 2/3 of the required sports facilities for an Olympic Games already in place, Moscow meets two key criteria of the IOC’s bid principles – emphasis on managing costs and ensuring Olympic Games sports infrastructure sustainability. He said, “after the Games, the Olympic and media villages will be converted to private housing and the media centre will be used by the city”.
He added that all venues will be within 10-20 minutes drive of each other. “It is very comfortable for the athletes, spectators and the Olympic Family”.
Also, he believes that Moscow’s vast experiences of hosting international sports events, (more than 100 world and European championships in different sports) will also add some weight in Beijing’s Olympic bid, and that Russia is capable of delivering a “secure” Games if it wins the bid.
Chernov said, “according to an independent poll conducted recently, more than 89 per cent of Russian people are in favour of the Olympic bid”.
