John Furlong, President and Chief Operating Officer of Vancouver’s bid for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, held a press conference marking the 99-day countdown to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) July 2 decision on a host city. He said Vancouver 2010 bid officials are working to address some of the “challenges” mentioned during the IOC’s evaluation visit to Vancouver.
The Whistler Question reports that some of the challenges included transportation and the need for medal ceremonies to be held in both Vancouver and Whistler. There was also concern from the IOC about the amount of accommodation needed in Whistler.
During the IOC’s visit, Gerhard Heiberg, evaluation commission chairman, said he was concerned that more people would want to stay in Whistler for the duration of the Games than the resort will be able to accommodate.
Furlong said that bid corporation officials are trying to identify the best course of action for dealing with the problem.
Furlong said if more people want to stay in Whistler than originally planned, there will be side benefits in the area of transportation. He said it will reduce the requirements for the road. “We won’t have as many vehicles on the road”.
Furlong said bid officials are working to identify areas where the transportation plan could be improved. Bid officials have been talking with provincial Ministry of Transportation officials to determine how much time planned improvements to the Sea to Sky highway will shave off the drive time between Vancouver and Whistler.
“We’re dealing with the broad transportation issues – both local transportation and the broader issue of Vancouver to Whistler.”
Meanwhile between now and the July 2 vote in Prague, Vancouver 2010 bid officials are promoting the bid to national sports organizations and IOC officials, and to the general public.
They are at the World Figure Skating Championships this week in Washington D.C., and they will be attending the World Curling Championships April 5 to 13 in Winnipeg and the meeting of South American national Olympic committees in Argentina being held in late April.
Also on May 12 to 16 each of the three bid cities will attend the SportAccord convention in Madrid Spain. Representatives of both the IOC and the 95 national sport federations will be there, said Furlong.
“Internationally we have to evolve the bid in multiple areas. The first objective of our team has to be to get 51 per cent of the vote in Prague, but at the same time we have to advance the value-added proposition of the bid in other areas. We’d like to have Vancouver regarded as a great place from a marketing perspective, so as we go to Prague, we want to build this aura around the bid, the aura of a winner” he said.
