According to the initial IOC evaluation report released today, Salzburg Austria and Vancouver Canada are leading the way. They both received scores “above the benchmark”.
Also on the short list but with lower scores that “straddle the benchmark”, Berne Switzerland and Pyeongchang South Korea present some concerns. The evaluation team noted that Berne’s plan is not athlete friendly, would be difficult to organize and is subject to a local referendum later in the year. They also report that Pyeongchang’s venues and locations need further development.
The report generally describes a two-bid race, where two additional bids have been added to leave options open for the IOC membership when they vote next year.
Salzburg leads several categories including transportation, environment and finance. Some of the categories Vancouver leads are the Olympic Village plans and overall concept.
In the most highly weighted category which looks at general infrastructure, Salzburg has a clear lead, followed by Berne, Pyeongchang and then Vancouver.
GamesBids.com will publish a full report including all IOC evaluation data on Thursday.
