As the race for the 2008 Olympic Games begins its final lap, the Toronto Star reports that the talk in International Olympic Committee (IOC) circles is that Toronto may not win the bid, but that it certainly has its act together.
TO-Bid CEO John Bitove Jr. told the Star “our strategy is to show the international sports world that the three levels of government and the people of this city, province and nation are committed to an unparalleled Olympic Games, which includes everything from how we treat athletes to showing how we harmonize cultures from around the world”. He added “I don’t know that in the history of bidding that anyone has had a plan that’s as good for athletes and spectators as ours is. We have more than 100 athletes on our team 2008, and we asked them what would make the ultimate Games for them. They said they spend their whole life training, and then they’re stuck on a bus for six hours to get to and from their event.”
TO-Bid’s Doug Hamilton in charge of athletic facilities, called the TO-Bid plan an “athlete-friendly plan that should meet with applause from an IOC which always says it has the athletes’ interests at heart”. Some of the sites are beyond a one-hour driving limit from the downtown athletic village, but far less than the six hours the athletes had been complaining about.
