USOC president Sandra Baldwin is assuring the eight cities vying to host the 2012 Summer Games that their bids are not a waste of time.
In a letter faxed to the eight bid cities Baldwin wrote “I assure you that the USOC would not be devoting its limited resources to the bid process if it were not absolutely confident that the U.S. candidate city would be a leading contender to host the 2012 Olympic Games”.
The letter was sent following recent comments by the CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee Mitt Romney that he believes the Games will not be back in the United States for another 20 years.
Baldwin said, “while Mr. Romney obviously is entitled to his opinion, he neither speaks for nor represents the view of the USOC”.
Baldwin said “a number of our bidding cities had some concerns that no one would be supportive of this. That’s why I felt it necessary to give them encouragement that we want them to have”.
On Wednesday, IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch said that any U.S. city bidding for the Games must be considered a front-runner. “We have the tradition that every time we organize the Games – they organize the Games – in the United States, the Games are a huge success. That means that their candidates I think, they will be always the front-runner”.
Each of the bidding cities put up a $150,000 application fee to the USOC, which will begin touring the cities and analyzing the bids next year. Today is the deadline for U.S. cities to bid for the Games and the USOC will pick its nominee in the fall of 2002. The IOC will pick the host city in 2005.
