IOC member Dick Pound of Canada, in Athens to meet with 2004 Olympic organizers, said that Toronto is a long shot to win the 2008 Games.
Pound said, I can tell you it’s a very good bid. It’s a better bid than when we lost to Athens and Atlanta for the 1996 Games. But what I tell Toronto is that it’s harder for the IOC, not impossible, but it’s harder for the IOC to come back to a smaller country for the third time in 30 years before a larger country has had the Games once.
Karen Pitre, TO-2008 executive vice-president said, “we knew that from the beginning. We’re not surprised. That issue (about China deserving a Games) has been out there for years”, she said.
Pound, who is running for the IOC presidency, has remained neutral during the race for the 2008 Games.
Paul Henderson, an IOC member and head of Toronto’s failed 1996 bid, said, “he’s running for president and I think he feels that if Toronto is successful, it would impact negatively on him…because then Canada would have been getting too much”.
Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman, reacting cautiously after making inappropriate statements about Africans, said while he was disappointed by the remark, it would show the world that the Toronto bid is independent of Pound. “Maybe it will help us, because he is running for chairman, and it could help us with the other ones who are running for chairman as well”.
Bob Richardson, chief operating officer of the Toronto bid, said his team has had “very positive” responses from IOC members on all continents. “It’s a fluid situation. A lot of them are focused on the presidential race”.
Meanwhile, Pound said he was looking forward to opening the Athens 2004 Games as new IOC head.
Pound had criticized the organizers of the Athens Games when the IOC issued a warning last year urging them to speed up preparations. But he said these were now back on track.
“Based on what I have seen, you are now on the right road…you have a realistic timetable and a commitment from the entire country, there’s been a huge change”, he said.
He was also surprised that Athens had almost reached its national sponsorship revenue targets for the Games after signing only just 10 per cent of expected deals. He said, “the results to date are extraordinary, you have a much more vigorous private sector that people expect…this will give confidence to the international community”, he said.
