Philippe Baudillon, President of the Paris 2012 bid committee, called the race for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games open even after the delays to New York’s Olympic stadium project.
“We still have four competitors”, said Baudillon. “New York’s proposition is high quality. When a city like New York wants to build a stadium, it can build a stadium”, he told Bloomberg.
Paris already has its Olympic stadium – the Stade de France -, which was built for soccer’s 1998 World Cup final and was the venue for the 2003 World Athletics Championships.
Baudillon called it a strong asset to have the Olympic stadium in place “because it’s less costly and we know how the stadium can be efficiently run. It’s already held very different events and we know what has to be improved and also what is working”.
Baudillon plans to attend the multi-sport Mediterranean Games June 24 to July 3 in Almeria Spain following a visit to Accra Ghana from June 17-18 where the bid cities will make presentations directly to IOC members. The Guardian newspaper reports that Paris has the support of 50 members compared to 35 members backing London.
Baudillon played down concern that New York supporters may back London if New York fails in the first round of voting. He said, “it’s very difficult to know who is going to vote for whom. It’s like a vote for the referendum or a new government; people will hesitate and listen to all the arguments and then make their choices at the end”.
