IOC Inspection Chief Positive After Munich 2018 Venue Tour

(ATR) IOC Evaluation Commission chair Gunilla Lindberg tells Around the Rings "everything is going well" at the halfway point of the Munich 2018 Winter Olympic bid inspection tour.

Lindberg spoke briefly to ATR at the site of the 1936 Olympic Stadium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, as the IOC's 11-member delegation completed its whistlestop tour of the bid's proposed Alpine ski venues before heading back to Munich, one hour away.

The IOC inspection team lined up for a photo call at the stadium site that once held 40,000 for the 1936 Games; it was the only time the media crossed paths with the evaluation commission the entire day.

With plenty of snow on the ski slopes and under blue skies and bright sunshine, Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli told ATR the IOC team was enjoying the venue tour.

"It's fantastic," he smiled, gesturing to the sky.

Bid CEO Bernhard Schwank told ATR he was satisfied with how the tour had gone.

The 1936 Olympic Stadium was the high point of the IOC's tour. Commission members joined Munich 2018 bid officials for the photo call, including chair Katarina Witt, Schwank and IOC vice president Thomas Bach, who also heads the bid's shareholders' board.

Little remains of the venue bar several rows of concrete seating and statues depicting athletes adorning the facades. Under the Munich 2018 bid, it is slated as the site for ski jumping, Nordic combined and the aerials competition, with slalom events to be held on the adjacent ski slope. That venue hosted slalom events at last month's FIS Alpine World Championships.

The IOC's venue tour also took in visits to Hausberg, the snowboard and freestyle skiiing venue, the Kandahar ski resort that also staged the skiing world champs last month and the biathlon and cross country venue.

At the biathlon site, which would accommodate 22,000 spectators at a Munich Games, reporters were greeted by a group of pro-Olympic campaigners from Garmisch-Partenkirchen called 'Ja-Olympia'. They sang, yodelled and were given 20 minutes to speak to reporters aboutwhythey want the Olympics.

Less than 100 meters away, just three NOlympia protesters sought to make their environmental concerns heard but were drowned out by the 30-plus Ja-Olympia members.

Various athlete ambassadors were paraded before the IOC delegates and media covering the venue tour Wednesday.About 50 reporters were on the media bus.

At Kandahar, reporters took a trip up to theAlpspitzbahnvenue at 2,033 meters with German Winter Olympians such as Rosi Mittermaier. The venueoverlooks the small town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Germany's largest mountain, the 2962-meter Zugspitze, could be seen in the distance from a viewing platform.

Mittermaier, who won downhill and slalom golds at the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics, said the FIS ski world champs had been a wonderful showcase of Garmisch-Partenkirchen's major event capabilities.

She told ATR she was hopeful of Munich 2018's bid chances against rivals Annecy and PyeongChang, adding: "I am confident because everything is ready. We have nice ski slopes which is very important for the Olympic Games."

The Munich congress center that would become the Main Press Center and International Broadcast Center was the final stop for the delegation. At the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, the convention center was converted into media headquarters covering 30,000 square meters and accommodating 2,000 journalists.

Munich 2018 announced Wednesday it would provide free high-speed internet for media if the Bavarian city wins the right to stage the Games.

On Thursday, the IOC inspectors will spend the morning in closed-door briefings with the Munich 2018 bid team. A tour of the proposed 2018 ice venues at the city's Olympic Park is scheduled for the afternoon.

Written by Mark Bisson