San Francisco 2012 has unveiled a new campaign in its bid to be the U.S. candidate for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games – it’s called “The Bridge to the Future”.
Following the city’s submission of its 300-page bid addendum to the International Olympic Committee, San Francisco’s bid committee launched its campaign to kick off the final seven months of the competition.
Supporting San Francisco’s bid is Olympic track superstar and five-time gold medallist Michael Johnson. He said, “If I could choose one place on earth for the 2012 Olympic Games, I’d choose the San Francisco Bay Area. When it comes to providing the best conditions, the best environment and the best plan for the athletes, San Francisco 2012 laps its competitors”.
Johnson moved to the Bay Area from Texas last year and is the newest Olympian member of the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee (BASOC) Board of Directors.
Anne Cribbs, President and CEO of BASOC said, “our bid for the 2012 Olympic Games builds the ‘Bridge to the Future’ for the United States Olympic Committee, the people of the San Francisco Bay Area and the International Olympic Movement”.
According to the bid committee, San Francisco’s bid addendum reveals a new, compact “Ring of Gold” venue plan that places 92 per cent of all venues (excluding remote football sites) within 55 km of the centrally-located Olympic Village, with over half within 30 km.
The “Ring of Gold” is comprised of six highly compact venue clusters that create an Olympic Park environment at each site, with each cluster connected by high speed rail and rapid transit around San Francisco Bay.
Within the “Ring of Gold” 93 per cent of venues – all but two – are within walking distance (less than one mile) from a rail or rapid transit station.
Larry “Trooper” Johnson, star Paralympian in wheelchair basketball said, “the San Francisco Bay Area is the best place one earth for the 2012 Paralympic Games. We’re the birthplace of the disability rights movement, we’re the world leader in accessibility and we more fully embrace and empower people with disabilities than any other place in the world”.
