Based on findings in the International Olympic Committee’s technical evaluation report of the 2016 Olympic bid cities, Rio de Janeiro has a lot to be excited about. All four candidates received generally favorable evaluations in the report released Wednesday, but the language used in Rio’s summary seemed to favor its bid – if only by a small margin.
Speaking to GamesBids.com from London, President of Rio 2016 Carlos Nuzman found it difficult to contain his excitement.
“It is fair to say that Rio has a very positive report and possibly the most favorable of all”, Nuzman said boldly.
“The IOC report is a real boost to the Rio bid.”
While the IOC did point out some weaknesses in Rio’s plans – they followed each of these points with a benefit. Referring to a potential conflict in preparations between Brazil’s 2014 FIFA World Cup and a 2016 Olympic Games, Rio 2016 Secretary General Carlos Osorio picked up on the spin.
“Our communication plans take into consideration that the World Cup is going to be there. We think that both events can work very well together; there’s a big synergy between both of them and we don’t see any challenges just advantages and synergies in having the World Cup” Osorio explained to GamesBids.com.
“And quite frankly if you notice that the United States, Japan and Spain are also bidding for the 2018 World Cup you can see that everybody thinks that’s a great idea to have both events with two years apart; but only Brazil has got the World Cup already and most importantly before the Olympic Games.”
Rio was a questionable addition to the candidate list last year after it stood fifth in an initial IOC evaluation report. In fact Rio trailed behind Doha, Qatar – a city that was eliminated from the bid. Rio failed to make the same cut when they bid for the 2012 games.
However, Brazil’s bid has been steadily gaining momentum over the past year. Presentations in Denver and Lausanne this year drew rare applause from IOC members and it was clear that Rio had become a sentimental favorite based on the bid’s desire to host the Games in South America for the very first time.
Now with only a month to go, the evaluation report is concrete evidence that Rio is a bid to beat.
