Former IOC President Samaranch Asks For The 2016 Olympic Games In Madrid At Final Presentation

Madrid made the fourth and final Olympic bid presentation of the day to IOC members in Copenhagen. Following is a summary.

Spanish IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. took the podium first and introduced the bid delagation.

Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardin took the stage next.

The Mayor said that this is the second consecutive bid for Madrid. He said that in sport there is never failure, you can never give up. He said he and his team will stay to support the Madrid Olympics for the next seven years.

A video portraying Madrid as multicultural showed people of different nationalities and different cultures living in Madrid.

Mercedes Coghen, CEO of Madrid 2016 spoke next. She spoke about her Olympic experience in Field Hockey.

“We believe in our games with the human touch.”

“Thanks to our location and time zone we offer a global Games.”

A video showed a visualization of the venue plan as described by Coghen and others. The empasis was on the bid’s planned legacy, environmental plans and the compact, efficient transportation plans.

Esperanza Agguirre, President of the Regional Government of Madrid spoke about her governments committment to the Games and emphasized Olympic values and her goal to change the life of citizens of Madrid.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, President of the Spanish Government was next on stage. He spoke of infrastructure that is already built and ready.

“Our candidacy is reliable. It is reliable because it is united politically.”

“We have listened to everything the IOC has suggested.”

“I commit to a project which will allow the spreading of athletics for all young people.”

A video was shown of people “relaying” an envelope from Madrid, across Europe and finally to the Bella Center in Copenhagen resolved into an actual handoff of a letter to the IOC signed by the people of Madrid. It contained a message hope and dreams for the 2016 Olympics.

Alejandro Blanco, President of the Spanish Olympic Committee was next on the podium and he spoke of a games designed by and for the athletes.

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Leaders gather in Copenhagen to lobby for 2016 Olympics host

COPENHAGEN, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) — Heads of government or state from the countries of candidate cities have begun arriving in Copenhagen to lobby for the bid of their cities for hosting the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived late Wednesday in the Danish capital to drum up support for Rio De Janeiro’s bid.

Silva, known as Lula, will meet with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) members on Thursday ahead of the vote the next day.

He had appealed on Sunday to delegates from Latin American and African countries “to vote for Rio”, hoping to bring the first Olympic Games to South America.

“The world’s biggest sporting event cannot always be held in rich countries,” he said.

Among the Brazilian delegation was well-known football player Pele, who had already been in Copenhagen.

U.S. President Barack Obama will arrive here on Friday and join First Lady Michelle in Chicago’s final presentation to the IOC.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re not taking anything for granted, so I’m going to go talk to some voters,” Michelle Obama told the press upon her arrival on Wednesday in the Marriott Hotel.

She said that she would tell the IOC members that Chicago “is a wonderful host city (with) great people, great facilities.”

“It knows about sports and its hospitality is like no other,” she added.

The IOC’s 121st Session will select the host city of the 2016 summer Olympic Games among Chicago, Tokyo, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro.

Rio de Janeiro and Chicago are seen as the favorites in a tight race as the Brazilian delegation hopes to bring the first Olympic games to Latin America and Obama’s presence throws heavy weight behind Chicago’e bid for hosting the largest sports event.

Obama, to be the first U. S. president to appeal in person to the IOC for an Olympics event, had previously wanted to stay at home to push forward his health care reform.

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Photos from Copenhagen

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Tokyo 2016

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Chicago 2016 Delegation at the airport

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Rio 2016

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Madrid mayor ‘less confident’ about Olympic bid

MADRID’S mayor has said he felt more confident about the city’s Olympic bid before meeting the Committee in Copenhagen than afterwards.

Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón told reporters yesterday that he felt a little nervous when presenting his city to the judges in the Danish capital.

But the mayor stresses that Madrid has ‘very favourable circumstances’ that could swing the vote in its favour.

“We have the best product and we have generated a scenario where the evaluation of the product’s quality will be a determining factor,” states Ruiz-Gallardón.

He claims to have ‘many hunches’ about the Spanish capital’s chances, but did not want to go into detail for fear of tempting fate.

Madrid’s mayor is also anxious about what he calls the ‘Obama effect’, which could mean Chicago wins more votes.

But this remains to be seen, with Chicago and Río de Janeiro having locked horns over the latter’s mayor’s having heavily criticised the Brazilian city.

The final decision as to where the 2016 Olympics will be held takes place this Friday.

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400,000 Madrid 2016 supporters form human mosaic: Officials

MADRID — Hundreds of thousands of people formed a “human mosaic” in Madrid Sunday to show their support for the city’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics, five days before the International Olympic Committee makes its decision.

The IOC is to announce in Copenhagen on Friday whether Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Chicago or Tokyo will host the 2016 Games.

The Madrid 2016 organising committee planned the event, which they called an “Olympic fiesta”, to show the “strength of support” among residents for the city’s candidature.

The city councillor responsible for crowd safety, Pedro Calvo, said that around 400,000 attended the gathering in the Plaza Cibeles, where supporters of Real Madrid traditionally celebrate its titles. The organisers put the figure at half a million.

The crowd formed the human mosaic by holding up cards of the different colours of Madrid’s candidature — red, green, blue and yellow.

“What happened today is very important for Madrid’s bid, because we have sent a strong message not only to the IOC members but to the entire Olympic movement that this city loves sport and wants the Games,” said Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon.

The Madrid organising committee has regularly pointed to the strong popular support in Spain for Madrid’s Olympic bid as one of the arguments for holding the Games in the Spanish capital.

Also Sunday, 2,016 golfers set a Guinness world record by hitting golf balls at the exactly the same moment in an event near the capital.

A Spanish delegation of several hundred people is to leave for Copenhagen on Monday, headed by King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

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Madrid 2016 “Impulse Day” Celebration To Attract One Million

Up to one million people are expected to attend Madrid’s “Impulse Day” celebration Sunday in Cibeles Square to show support and solidarity for Madrid 2016′s Summer Olympic bid.

The celebrants will be wearing the colours of Madrid’s Olympic Hand bid logo, and will come together as a city to form part of a giant Olympic Hand and the largest human mosaic ever created, said a press release.

93.6 per cent of Spanish citizens expressed their clear support for the Games in Madrid, along with full backing from all levels of Spanish society, from the Royal Family to corporates, unions, the government, political parties and sporting federations.

The human mosaic will be photographed at 19.30 hours local time and images will be sent across the world once again to underline the strength of support for Madrid 2016 in all corners of the world, said the press release. There will be a free concert and a fiesta featuring activities for everyone including jugglers, face painters, street artists, etc.

Madrid 2016 bid leader Mercedes Coghen said, “we are now all very excited about making the journey to Copenhagen. We will be there as the representatives of our city and look forward to telling the IOC why Madrid is the best city to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016″.

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Olympics 2016 – Behind the bid: Madrid

To paraphrase 1980s Spanish pop group Los Refrescos, you can have a thousand cinemas, theatres and museums but when August comes there is still no damn beach.

The oppressive summer heat of Madrid, one of four cities vying to host the 2016 Olympic Games, and its lack of a sandy shoreline might put some visitors off but the Spanish capital still has plenty to offer.

Refuge from the blazing sunshine can be sought in a world-class art museum or leafy park and tourists can sample tapas on a cool terrace as the evening temperature dips Madrid is home to just over 3 million people and attracts millions more each year with its rich cultural heritage, diverse architecture, hundreds of restaurants and bars and deserved reputation as Europe’s party central.

The sprawling city stands in the centre of Spain on the Manzanares river atop a plateau some 650 metres above sea level and the landscape rises steeply to the north-west into the spectacular Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range.

The surrounding region boasts such landmark sites as El Escorial, with its stunning royal palace, Alcala de Henares, the birthplace of Cervantes, and Segovia, with its ancient Roman aqueduct and gothic cathedral.

Madrid itself is known as the city of a thousand faces due to the diversity of its architectural styles, from the imposing 16th century buildings around Plaza Mayor, through 18th century Baroque to art deco, modernist and fascist.

During the 1980s, the enlightened cultural policies and imaginative urban planning of Socialist mayor Enrique Tierno Galvan helped transform the city from the grey and depressing power centre of the Franco dictatorship.

The process has continued apace under successive mayors and popular neighbourhoods include La Latina, grungy Malasana, trendy Chueca with its large gay community, cosmopolitan Lavapies and upscale Salamanca.

The city has quadrupled in size in the last half century but most of the main tourist sites are within a walkable central area that is also served by a clean, safe and efficient metro.

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Spain alters doping law ahead of 2016 Olympic vote

By Ciaran Giles, Associated Press Writer

MADRID — Spain adjusted its anti-doping laws Friday to comply with international regulations and boost Madrid’s chances of staging the 2016 Olympics.

Spain’s legislation will permit drug-testing of athletes between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. in line with World Anti-Doping Agency rules, Deputy Prime Minister Elena Salgado said. Previously, Spain had permitted testing between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Doubts over Spain’s full compliance with WADA’s out-of-competition testing rules was one of the issues raised by an International Olympic Committee evaluation panel after it visited Madrid to inspect its 2016 bid project.

Madrid is competing with Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. The IOC will announce the winning city on Oct. 2 in Copenhagen.

“With this initiative, the government wants to boost Madrid’s 2016 candidacy so that it can go to Copenhagen with the approval of all the international bodies involved in the fight against doping,” Salgado said after the weekly government’s Cabinet meeting.

The government pointed out that although the IOC had raised the issue, WADA in August had listed Spain among the countries that fully complied with the anti-doping code and among the few that apply out-of-competition controls.

Spain’s reputation was badly tarnished by cycling’s Operation Puerto doping scandal in 2006 when police raided two clinics in Madrid that were allegedly at the center of a blood-doping ring. More than 50 cyclists and several doctors and cycling team officials were implicated, but no one was formally charged.

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IOC awards Spanish TV rights for $100 million

STEPHEN WILSON - AP Sports Writer

LONDON (AP) — Spanish public broadcaster RTVE secured national broadcast rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics on Friday in a deal worth $100 million, another revenue boost for the IOC during the global recession.

The International Olympic Committee said RTVE was awarded the rights across all platforms, including free television, subscription TV, radio, Internet and mobile phones.

The agreement covers the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and 2016 Summer Olympics, whose host city will be selected by the IOC next month from finalists Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

Financial terms were not announced, but an Olympic official with direct knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press the contract was worth just over $100 million. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because contract figures are not announced.

It’s the first time the IOC has negotiated rights directly in Spain, and brings the total in European rights fees to date for 2014 and 2016 to about $692 million.

“We are delighted to be continuing our relationship with RTVE, who have done a fantastic job for many years promoting the magic of the Olympic Games across Spain and helping to promote Olympic sports,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said in a statement.

Because of the economic downturn, the IOC postponed negotiations on the lucrative U.S. rights until sometime after the Oct. 2 vote on the 2016 host city.

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Madrid 2016 bid has strongest public support – report

By Antonella Ciancio

MILAN, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Spaniards stand united behind Madrid’s bid for the 2016 Olympic Games while Tokyo has the weakest public support among the four potential host cities, a global study showed on Tuesday.

In an advance copy released exclusively to Reuters, “Sponsoring 21+” prepared by Germany-based sponsoring consultancy Sport+Markt, said 93 percent of Spanish respondents backed the Madrid bid, closely followed by Chicago and Rio de Janeiro.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will announce the 2016 Olympic host city on Oct. 2 in Copenhagen.

“The population’s passion for a sports event is the key to its success,” said Hartmut Zastrow, executive director at Sport+Markt.

Madrid, bidding for the second successive time, is banking on the legacy of the Barcelona 1992 Games and its Mediterranean climate to swing the vote but is widely seen as an outsider.

“The Spanish enthusiasm for Madrid’s bid is very remarkable. Madrid’s chances are said to be low as the Summer Games in 2012 in London are already on European soil,” Zastrow added.

Tokyo, who topped the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) overall technical evaluation last June ahead of Madrid, ranks as the lowest bidder for local support.

Just 72 percent of 1,000 people interviewed across Japan judged its proposal “good or very good”, the report said.

“The bid of Tokyo does not have enough support in its own country so far,” Zastrow commented. “This weakens the Japanese bid immensely.”

Bookmakers’ favourite Chicago comes second with 92 percent of public backing in the United States.

Rio, promoting the city’s friendly atmosphere and the hosting of the 2007 Pan American Games as key reasons for holding a successful Games, has 89 percent of nationwide support, the report added.

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