Madrid 2020 to be Games for the athletes and the Olympic family

The Madrid 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games Bid team are in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) Extraordinary General Assembly, which brings together delegations from 205 countries in the five continents. As part of the event, the three candidate cities for the 2020 Games each made a 15-minute presentation to the Assembly, with Madrid the last to take the stage.

As was the case at last month’s SportAccord convention, Madrid 2020 was represented on the stage by six speakers: the Mayor of Madrid Ana Botella; Madrid 2020 Bid President Alejandro Blanco; the Spanish Secretary of State for Trade Jaime Garcia-Legaz; Spanish International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Jose Perurena; and the two other heads of the bid office: Theresa Zabell and Victor Sanchez, respectively the vice-president and secretary general of the Spanish Olympic Committee and Madrid 2020.

In making the presentation, not only were the speakers able to show the fun, vibrancy and unique personality of Madrid, its people and their enthusiasm for sport, but also put a very strong emphasis on Spain’s latest macroeconomic figures.

During the presentation, Madrid 2020 highlighted its two key messages. The first, beingthe fact the city offers zero financial risk in hosting the Games, with 80 percent of the main infrastructure and venues already built. Secondly, and very importantly for the National Committees, who will be sending their delegations to the Olympics, that financial guarantee will allow Madrid to focus, immediately during the next 7years on preparing a memorable Games for the athletes and the Olympic family, a Games in which sport will come before everything else. Reinforcing that vision is the fact that the bid is being managed by the heads of the Spanish Olympic family.

Financial stability

In revealing key macroeconomic figures as part of his speech, Spanish Secretary of State for Trade Jaime Garcia-Legaz said: "This data shows that Spain’s economic foundations are solid, multi-faceted and capable of meeting the investment budget required to stage the Games."

The bid budget was one area that attracted more comment than most, thanks to the fact that the construction budget, which is estimated at €1.5bn and will be met by the Spanish authorities over a period of seven years, is smaller than the organising committee’s budget. This has never been the case before.

Growth potential

Garcia-Legaz added that the International Monetary Fund, the OECD and the European Commission have all said that Spain will register sustained growth over the next five years: "This is something that international consultancy firms also agree on. They recognise Spain as having the largest growth potential of Europe’s five biggest economies in the decade ahead."

Finally, Garcia-Legaz made reference to the European Commission’s spring forecast, which said that Spain leads the way in the European Union in terms of export growth, which rose 4.2 percent in the last financial year, outstripping even Germany, whose exports grew 3.3 percent.

IMF figures backed up that trend by revealing that Spain will boast Europe’s second best balance of payments in the next few years, while Eurostat figures also show that Spain is now Europe’s second economy in terms of the impact of exports on GDP and leads the way in Europe in foreign investment in industry.

Fifteen years of Olympic investment

Making her contribution to the presentation, the Mayor of Madrid Ana Botella spoke of the broad political support that Madrid 2020 enjoys, and the backing that all three levels of government have given to the city’s three Olympic bids. "It is a national priority," she said, before drawing the assembly’s attention to the support the bid has from Spanish sport as a whole, as well as the country’s main political parties, trade unions, business organisations and the public, with an independent IOC survey revealing that 81 percent of Spanish people were behind it.

Botella also spoke of the development of Madrid’s hotel and tourism industries, with the city receiving eight million visits a year, while €19bn has been invested in transport infrastructures in the region in the last decade.

Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) and Madrid 2020 Bid President Alejandro Blanco explained that the bid was headed by Spain’s National Olympic Committee and aims to show that the Games are a solid investment with guaranteed results for countries that have prepared for them for years. He added that nothing has been left to chance, that Madrid has spent the last 15 years building its Games infrastructures and that Spain has always fulfilled the promises it has made to the federations and Olympic committees in the many sporting events it has organised.

A responsibility to sport

Bid CEO Victor Sanchez then explained the technical aspects of the project: "Our vision of the Games is based on one word, and that is responsibility: a responsibility to sport and the Olympic movement, to the city itself and to Spain as a whole."

Sanchez said that Spain now has 100 more first-rate sports facilities than 15 years ago and added: "Only four permanent facilities and three temporary ones need to be built to stage a great Games in the city. Madrid’s legacy is not on blueprints. It’s out there on the ground already."

A superb setting and the warmest of welcomes

Two-time Olympic sailing champion and Madrid 2020 International Relations CEO Theresa Zabell reminded the members of the Olympic Committees of the warm welcome they will receive in Madrid, where every thought has gone into ensuring they are comfortable as possible.

Madrid’s Olympic Village will be situated just 500 metres from the Stadium and the other venues in the Olympic Park, while the remaining venues will be no more than 20 minutes away. Madrid 2020 also guarantees affordable air fares for Olympic and Paralympic Committee members, both in their journeys to Madrid and in the transporting of the equipment they need. It will also provide cheaper hotel accommodation for members not staying in the Olympic Village and give athletes’ families access to tickets to venues.

Finally, Spanish IOC member Jose Perurena, who is also the president of the International Canoe Federation, said that the city has been adapted to the Games and not the other way round. He added: "We had a duty to the world of sport to present another bid."

For more information, please contact Sandra Serrano at aserrano@madrid2020.es

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