Summary of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games Bid
On July 4, 2007 the IOC membership at the 119th Session in Guatemala will vote for the Host City of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
On July 28, 2005, National Olympic Committees interested in bidding for the 2014 Games were to submit their candidate city names to the IOC. Seven cities were nominated, namely Almaty Kazakhstan, Borjomi Georgia, Jaca Spain, PyeongChang South Korea, Salzburg Austria, Sochi Russia and Sofia Bulgaria. These cities were required to respond to a questionnaire to be submitted by February 1, 2006 and the results would be evaluated by the IOC and used to create a short-list.
The selected short-list of candidates that would be included in the vote to host the Games was announced on June 22, 2006 to be PyeongChang, Salzburg and Sochi. While Almaty straddled the cut-off score, a vote of the IOC Executive Board denied the bid’s inclusion on the short-list.
On January 10, 2007 the candidate cities submitted their three-volume bid books to the IOC. They were all accepted and approved by the IOC and were released to the public shortly thereafter. The IOC bid evaluation commission conducted their site tours commencing with PyeongChang from February 14-17, 2007 followed by Sochi from February 20 to 23, then Salzburg from March 14 to 17.
On June 4, 2007, the IOC evaluation commission issued its final technical report based on the bid books and site visits. While the commission indicates that they do not rank the bids it is clear that PyeongChang is slightly favoured followed by Sochi then Salzburg. However, the language in the report indicates that all three bids are qualified contenders.
On June 27, 2007 GamesBids.com releases BidIndex with scores showing PyeongChang clinging to a slight lead ahead of charging Sochi and then Salzburg after dropping to third for the first time in the race. Salzburg’s bid was rocked when the IOC evaluation report said that it had only 42% local support – a number that the bid committee contests.
The Vote
On July 4, 2007 at the 119th Session of the IOC in Guatemala, the three cities will make final 1 hour presentations to the IOC members at the Westin Camino Real (starting from 09:00 local Guatemala time time, GMT -6) in the following drawn order: Sochi, Salzburg, PyeongChang. A half-hour press briefing will follow each presentation.
102 IOC members will be eligible to vote in the first round of balloting. The current IOC president, members from potential host countries on the ballot (Russia has 3 members, Austria has 3 plus 2 from Germany who would host a proposed venue, and South Korea has 2) and absentee members are not eligible to vote (there are 111 total members available to vote).
[July 2 Update: The IOC reports that 5 IOC members will be absent from the vote so there will be 97 eligible first-round voters. 49 votes will be needed for a first-round victory]
The vote is by electronic secret ballot if the Chairman (the President, or, in his absence, the attending Vice-President senior) decides or upon the request of at least a quarter of the members present, and each eligible IOC member votes for one city. If after the first round no city has a majority of the votes (50% plus 1), the city with the fewest votes will be eliminated and further rounds will be held until one city receives a majority. If an IOC member was not eligible to vote because their country was on the ballot and their country gets eliminated, they become eligible to vote in any future rounds. In case of a tie between two cities with the least amount of votes in a round when further rounds are required, a special ballot will be held to decide which city to eliminate. In case of a tie between two cities on the final ballot, the Chairperson of the Session will cast the deciding vote.
At 15:30 Guatemala time, the round-by-round voting will commence followed at 17:00 by an announcement ceremony where the IOC president will announce the host of the 2014 Olympic Games. During the ceremony, three short videos of the bids will be presented followed by the envelope opening by Jacques Rogge. At 18:30 there will be a host city contract signing and a press conference held by the 2014 host city.
Schedule For July 4 – Local Guatemala Time (GMT -6)
09:00 – 09:15 Opening of the 119th IOC Session – Followed by the presentations of the 2014 Candidate Cities
09:15 – 10:15 Presentation by Sochi
10:30 – 11:00 Press briefing by Sochi
10:45 – 11:45 Presentation by Salzburg
12:00 – 12:30 Press briefing by Salzburg
12:15 – 13:15 Presentation by PyeongChang
13:30 – 14:00 Press briefing by PyeongChang
15:30 – 16:00 Voting to elect the 2014 Host City of Olympic Winter Games
17:00 Announcement Ceremony of the Host City of the XXII Olympic Winter Games
18:30 Signature of the Host City Contract followed by joint IOC/Host City press conference
