2018 Bids Make Speedy Presentations to Asian Olympic Leaders

(ATR) With just 10 minutes each to impress delegates at the Olympic Council of Asia general assembly in Guangzhou, the bid teams for the 2018 Winter Games had no time to waste Saturday.

Besides a short time to present, bid leaders from Annecy, Munich and PyeongChang also got word early Saturday morning in Guangzhou that their presentations would be moved from the end of the meeting to one of the first items on the agenda, hours ahead of schedule.

The change meant that few of the two dozen or so IOC members attending the OCA meeting were there to hear the bid cities. Most of the IOC members were off at another function across town Saturday morning.

The presentations were the second the three bids have made to an international audience, following by just a couple of weeks from their debut in Acapulco at the Association of National Olympic Committees. In Acapulco the bids had 20 minutes. They will present again in two weeks at the European Olympic Committees assembly in Belgrade; 15 minutes will be the time limit there.

Munich led the presentations, following the protocol order set by the IOC by drawing of lots last year. Annecy was second, PyeongChang third.

Witt Becoming Voice of German Bid

Munich 2018 chair Katarina Witt spoke first and last for the Bavarian bid, displaying a charm and credibility that comes from her famous career as a figure skater.

Munich stuck to its "Festival of Friendship" theme that was used first in Acapulco. And it was the only one of the three bids to rely on a teleprompter to ensure accurate delivery of speeches.

Siegfried Schneider made his first international appearance on behalf of the bid. The Bavarian government minister was instrumental in coming to terms with landowners in Garmisch Partenkirchen who were reluctant to allow their property to be included in plans for the Games.

Schneider told delegates that last week, the governments of Germany, Bavaria and Munich had all signed-off on guarantees to ensure the Games are delivered at "the highest levels of excellence".

COO Bernhard Schwank followed Schneider with a look at the twin-cluster plan for Munich, as he did in Acapulco.

In her concluding remarks, Witt stressed Germany’s love of sport, promising "a nation completely swept up in celebration".

"We’re not just promising full stadia, we guarantee it," said Witt.

Not speaking during the presentation, but appearing as part of the Munich team were IOC vice president and German NOC President Thomas Bach and IOC member Claudia Bokel, an IOC Athletes Commission member.

Speaking to ATR after the presentation, Witt admitted that Munich and Annecy both faced a bit of a challenge appearing in Guangzhou with an Asian bid as one of the contenders.

"Of course we were coming onto someone else’s home turf. At the same time when we go to Belgrade they face the same challenge.

"It’s like a competition. I actually delivered my best performance in America in Cincinnati where my biggest competitor, Debi Thomas was from," said Witt.

Annecy Tries A Solo Act

Annecy 2018 CEO Edgar Grospiron did his best as the only one of the three bids to be the lone presenter. While he brings the bid the street credibility of the Olympicfreeastyle champion that he is (Albertville 1992), Grospiron is not a dynamic English speaker, needing to closely follow the script.

In a new angle from the Acapulco presentation, Grospiron recounted a meeting he had in Chamonix with a woman he identified as "Madame Helene", 100 years old, with teenaged-memories of the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix in 1924.

"For nearly a century she has been observing how the region has been shaped by Olympism," said Grospiron.

"She said she would be pleased to welcome you in 2018," he said.

Grospiron noted that he represents a new generation ready to rekindle the Olympic spirit in Chamonix, which will contain nearly all the snow events in the Annecy bid.

"The generation I represent is ready to step up to the challenge and take winter sports to a new dimension," said Grospiron, mentioning French IOC members Jean-Claude Killy and Guy Drut as part of the team working for the bid.

Killy, himself a legend in winter sport as Olympian and Albertville Games president, is a confidant of Grospiron. So far, Killy has shown his support for the bid only by proxy in videos. But in Guangzhou technical problems with the playback of the video left Killy voiceless and Grospiron nervously watching the finale of his presentation come to a crash.

"We always have to adapt. It’s the same for the organization of the Games," said Grospiron about the glitch and the sudden change in schedule for theGuangzhou presentations.

"The most important thing was to deliver the message that the new concept of Annecy is very compact," said the Annecy bid leader.

PyeongChang Plays to a Hometown Crowd

As the only Asian city in the race, the bid from PyeongChang might have had an edge over the two European bidders in capturing the attention and enthusiasm of the OCA delegates.

But that was not the case. The droll, sometimes stumbling delivery of bid CEO Yang Ho Cho did little to excite the room.

Still, Cho struck points that would appeal to Asia, the only one of the three bids that would try to make that connection.

"The Asian Games here in Guangzhou are the largest in history and they clearly demonstrate Asia’s affection for summer sports. It is our dream that this passion can be focused on Winter Sports as well," said Cho.

"This is a historic choice for the OCA and Asia, to build new bridges to winter sports in Asia," he said.

"Pyeongchang’s vision is simple, yet powerful. PyeongChang 2018 aspires to offer the Olympic Movement and world of Olympic sports a legacy of new growth and new potential like never before, a world of new horizons," he said, mentioning the motto of the Korean bid.

Theresa Rah, communications director for the bid, reprised her role from Acapulco to explain in clear, unaccented North America English the venue plan which PyeongChang says is the most compact ever for a Winter Games.

Korean Olympic Committee President Y.S. Park closed the PyeongChang presentation as the only NOC leader of the three bids to speak. And he addressed his remarks to his Asian colleagues. He noted that Asians have made up one-third of the participants in the annual Dream Program hosted in PyeongChang to introduce young people to winter sports.

Park told the OCA that through the Dream Program, the number of countries participating in the Winter Games could increase from the current 70 or so to 100 by 2018.

Park also promised the NOCs a program that would invite them to Korea for their advice on staging the Games.

Appearing with the PyeongChang bid team, but not speaking, was Gangwon Province Governor Gwang Jae Lee. His predecessor, Jin Sun Kim, involved with each of PyeongChang’s three bids, arrives in Guangzhou this weekend in his first appearance as a bid ambassador.

PyeongChang was the only one of the three bids without an Olympian as part of the presentation team.

Speaking to ATR after the presentation, Cho said he was satisfied with the thrust of the message aimed at Asia. And the absence of IOC members?

"That’s very unfortunate, but we still have a long way to go. We hope to meet all of them to send our message," said Cho.

Written and reported in Guangzhou by Ed Hula.

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