Innsbruck Poses Least Risk for 2012 Youth Olympic Games

(ATR) Innsbruck, Austria could be the favorite to win the 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games, the annoucememnt coming  Friday. The IOC Evaluation Commission report says the plan for the Games in the Austrian sports center poses "minimal risk".  

Guardar
INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA - JANUARY 03:
INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA - JANUARY 03: Martin Schmitt of Germany soars during the qualification round in front of the Wiltener Basilica (R) Innsbruck at the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup event at the 55th Four Hills Ski Jumping Tournament on January 03, 2007 in Innsbruck, Austria. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images)

(ATR) Innsbruck, Austria could be the favoriteto win the 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games, the annoucememnt coming Friday. The IOC Evaluation Commission report says the plan for the Games in the Austrian sports center poses "minimal risk".

"Innsbruck’s plan to host the first Winter Youth Olympic Games is very well thought through and presents an integrated vision with a good balance of sport, culture and education," the committee led by IOC member Pernilla Wiberg concluded in its findings. It went on to highlight the organizers' reliance on existing structures, strong governmental support and experience as host of numerous prior sporting events.

Innsbruck's deputy mayor, Christoph Platzgummer, was not surprised when the city made the IOC's short list.

"The sports city of Innsbruck scores highly because of its existing and, more than anything else, ultra-modern sports facilities," Platzgummer said in a statement. "The investment in sports complexes, such as the two ice rinks and the bob and luge track in Innsbruck-Igls, was recognized by the IOC’s international experts and this played an important part in our winning the finalist nomination."

The proposal from Innsbruck indicates that the Games would occur Jan. 13 to 22, 2012, with all events occurring in two communities, Innsbruck and Seefeld. It also states that 58 percent of the medal events will occur in two arenas -- Olympiaworld Innsbruck and the Seefeld Arena.

Innsbruck plans to focus its 2012 Games on five key pillars: a Youth Olympic media lab, pairing project, sustainability project, arts project and the Olympic Youthfest 2012. These programs will be launched in the years leading up to the Games.

Central to Innsbruck's plans is a focus on new media. The bid committee hopes to get young people involved by creating newsrooms, television and film studios, radio and music studios, a digital photography lab and a web lab, all with the key purpose of creating content by youth.

On offer will also be an event called "The Meeting in the Mountains: The Ultimate Social Networking Event." This would be the first open gathering focused on social network sites that target youth. Scheduled to be held in Nordpark, the organizers hope to attract representatives and users of MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn and others. This is different from complaints from some social media outlets in Canada regarding their access to cover the 2010 Games.

While the evaluationcommission did have a favorable opinion of Innsbruck's proposal, there are some concerns. Two key areas the report highlighted were associated with the Olympic Village. These include the timeline for construction as well how additions to the original housing plans would impact the overall budget.

There was also some confusion over what the cost would be for obtaining visas and passports for competitors.

However, government officials are positive that these questions would be addressed.

"The Austrian bid committee has worked hard in recent months on the task of getting a convincing concept over to the IOC, one that would leave no questions unanswered," the deputy governor of the State of Tyrol, Hannes Gschwentner, said in a statement. "The short distances between the venues in Innsbruck and Seefeld definitely gave us an advantage over our rivals."

Harbin, China and Lillehammer, Norway were eliminated early in November.

A response from Innsbruck had not been received as of this story's release.

Written by

Trista McGlamery

For general comments or questions,

click here

Guardar

Últimas Noticias

Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons

Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came

Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024

She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa

Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris

Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rugby 7s: the best player

Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years

The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the

Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”

The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping