2016 Olympic Bids Face Test on Swiss Lakeside

The 2016 cities will present to the IOC at the Olympic Museum. (ATR/Panansonic:Lumix)(ATR) The four cities in the race for the 2016 Olympics are gathering their bid teams in Lausanne for a test of their plans that could make or break the campaigns. Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo will each make a 90 minute presentation on June 17 to more than 90 IOC members, a first-ever format for Olympic bids.

The briefings are meant to address concerns from bid cities as well as IOC members that more interaction is needed to learn about Olympic bids. Since 1999, when the Olympic vote-buying scandal boiled over, new IOC rules have curtailed contact between bids and IOC members.

The cities will present to the IOC members at the auditorium in the Olympic Museum overlooking Lake Geneva. Half of the time is allotted for a formal presentation, the remaining 45 minutes is reserved for questions from the members. On June 18, the cities will each have a stand at the Palace Hotel in the center of Lausanne for small group visits of IOC members.

Each city is allowed an official delegation of six members, although each will bring a team of support staff.

Chicago Hopes to Become Better Known

Chicago will highlight strengths of its bid, such as 78,000 guaranteed hotel rooms, only five venues to build, a legacy that has already begun with World Sport Chicago and an Olympic experience that encompasses the cultural center of the city and its parklands.

But bid officials offered no details of the presentation.

"You don't want to give away your moves in a chess match," spokesman Patrick Sandusky tells Around the Rings. (Chicago2016.org)

Chicago doesn't even want to share a press conference venue with other cities. After its presentation, Chicago will provide a shuttle service from the Olympic Museum to the Guisan Museum, where the briefing will be held. The other candidate cities are holding their press conferences at the Beau Rivage hotel.

Chicago's six presenters are Mayor Richard M. Daley, chairman and CEO Patrick G. Ryan, President Lori Healey, Vice President of International Relations Bob Ctvrtlik, Director of Sport, Venues and Operations Doug Arnot and Olympian and World Sport Chicago President Michael Conley.

"We know that Chicago is not as well-known among the membership as the other three cities," Ryan tells ATR, "so it gives us an extra opportunity to make Chicago better known, which we like a lot."

Ryan said Chicago has been "creating impressions" at "every meeting we can get to."

He said bid officials met a large number of IOC members in Beijing, "But nothing this comprehensive. (This is) obviously much more in depth, and the very important point for us to recognize is that now they're focused on this race."

Ryan said it's extremely important that the presentation be clear and easily understood.

"You want to make it as basic and straightforward as you can," he said, "because of language differences, and knowledge-based differences. We know a lot more about it. Often people will assume that others know exactly what they're talking about, but it's the first time they ever saw it."

Ctvrtlik will be the only representative from the USOC on the panel. USOC chairman Larry Probst and Acting CEO Stephanie Streeter will not be in Lausanne.

Ryan said that because this is a technical meeting, the top USOC officials don't need to appear. Besides, he said, Crtvrtlik has done most of the campaigning as the USOC rep.

Sandusky also will not make the trip to Lausanne. His wife Kate is due to give birth to twins no later than Friday.

Darryl Seibel, formerly the USOC's chief communications officer, will work as part of the Chicago media team in Lausanne.

"It's the first trip I haven't made in three years," Sandusky said.

Written by Karen Rosen

Madrid Freshens Pitch to Widen Appeal

Madrid promises a new-look presentation to target the audience of IOC members. It will be different from previous pitches, says a bid official. There are significant changes in structure and content, including new videos, in an attempt to widen the appeal of the bid concept and core themes. (Madrid2016.es)

“We see Lausanne as an opportunity in every sense, an opportunity to tell the whole story of our bid to members of the IOC,” bid CEO Mercedes Coghen tells Around the Rings.

Bid chiefs will tell IOC members Madrid offers the safest bid, with 70 percent of venues and virtually all infrastructure in place and financial guarantees from all levels of government. The bid’s “Human Touch” vision for the Games will also unfold in the presentation.

Madrid Mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon is expected to lead-off with an emotional appeal to the IOC members. He will be supported by Coghen, Spanish sports minister Jaime Lissavetsky and Alejandro Blanco, president of the Spanish Olympic Committee. Antonio Fernandez Arimany, managing director of Madrid 2016, and sports director Raul Chapado are also in the line-up of speakers.

IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., the only IOC member in Spain, will have a conspicuous presence in the conference room. Also in support are communications director Juan Antonio Villanueva and Tania Paessler, the bid international and public relations director.

The Madrid press conference is scheduled to take place at the Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel at 18.00.

The visual representation of the Spanish bid at Thursday’s exhibition will be similar to the 2016 display it staged at Sportaccord in Denver. Interactive elements will again feature to help bring the bid alive.

Madrid’s pitch to the IOC will come just days after the city’s inaugural ‘Integration Games’ and second annual Sports Day.

Billed as Spain’s biggest multicultural event, the new event held June 13 is part of an initiative to promote healthy coexistence across the region through the practice of sport. Able-bodied and disabled athletes competed in diverse sporting disciplines including basketball, softball, 7-a-side rugby, table tennis and volleyball at Madrid University.

Written by Mark Bisson

Rio Ready to Roll Out Games Plan

The Rio de Janeiro delegation includes three levels of government and three generations of Olympians.

Carlos Arthur Nuzman, the Rio 2016 president and IOC member, will lead the team. He will be joined by Carlos Roberto Osorio, Secretary General; Henrique Meirelles, president of Brazil's Central Bank; Sergio Cabral, governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro; Eduardo Paes, mayor of Rio de Janeiro; Agberto Guimarães, Director of Sport for the bid and Isabel Swan, Olympic bronze medalist in sailing. (Rio2016.org)

Nuzman competed in the 1964 Olympics in volleyball, Guimarães competed in the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Olympics in athletics, and Swan sailed in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Guimarães said Rio's plan for the Games "has athlete experience at its core and will deliver an unforgettable experience for them but also for the millions of fans and audiences around the world."

Rio 2016 has promised a "technically excellent, celebratory and transformative Games to the IOC" while becoming the first South American city to host the Olympics and Paralympics.

Nuzman tells Around the Rings that Rio sees the presentation as "a great opportunity to illustrate what 'Live your Passion' means to our Bid Committee, Brazilians and South America as a whole."

Rio will unveil a new film showing the technical aspects of the Games plan in more detail than the bid committee presented at Sportaccord in March. The team is also expected to address Rio's experience hosting the 2007 Pan American Games and how the infrastructure from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil will be used in 2016.

"We have developed a technically excellent Games plan that will enable all events to be held within the city limits of Rio against the most breathtaking backdrops our city has to offer," Nuzman tells ATR. "Rio is ready."

The Rio team has been rehearsing in Vevey, a town just east of Lausanne, in the days leading up the presentation.

"The support and dedication we have witnessed this past week in our final preparations from everyone involved makes us confident about the presentation in Lausanne," Nuzman said.

Written by Karen Rosen

Tokyo Excited at Opportunity

The Tokyo bid team led by Governor Shintaro Ishihara is not planning wholesale changes to its pitch or presentation style when it goes before the IOC on Wednesday at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

Instead, the Japanese delegation will reinforce the message communicated at international conferences and events over the past year; the focus is on conveying its vision of a compact, athlete-friendly and sustainable Olympics.

According to a member of the bid, the presentation will be tweaked to “reflect the unique opportunity of speaking directly with so many IOC members at this stage of the race.”

The Tokyo presenting team has a familiar look: Ishihara, president of the bid, will be joined by chair and CEO Ichiro Kono and Tsunekazu Takeda, president of the Japanese Olympic Committee Tokyo 2016. Also participating are Mikako Kotani, chair of Tokyo 2016’s Athletes' Commission, bid deputy director general Hidetoshi Maki and strategic planning director Toshiaki Hosaka. IOC Vice President Chiharu Igaya and Japan’s other IOC member Shun-ichiro Okano will play supporting roles. (AFP/Getty Images)

Asked about his hopes for the week, Kono tells Around the Rings the team is excited “to have a great opportunity to present directly to IOC members our detailed plans”.

“Tokyo 2016 is travelling to Lausanne with a strong desire to share insights and exchange ideas with the many Olympians present,” he said. “ We have involved athletes at every stage of our bid's development, and are confident that the Olympic Family will see how this will set the stage for the best-ever performances at Tokyo 2016, and for new generations of heroes for years to come."

The Tokyo 2016 press conference will be held at the Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel next to the Olympic Museum.

On June 18, Tokyo 2016’s exhibition stand in the Lausanne Palace Business Center will support the city’s ‘Setting the stage for heroes’ slogan, while showcasing the sporting, social and environmental legacies the bid says will remain post-Games.

A bid official says the exhibition also will allow Tokyo to display “some of the technological innovation for which Japan has long been famous, and which will be used to enhance the entire Games experience for athletes and visitors alike during Tokyo 2016.”

Written by Mark Bisson

With reporting from Mark Bisson and Karen Rosen.

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