(ATR) Bidding for 2020 enters the homestretch today as Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid mark a year to go until the host city election in Buenos Aires.
The vote will occupy the first day of the 125th IOC Session with an announcement likely to come late afternoon in the Argentine capital, so late evening in Madrid and Istanbul but early the following morning for Tokyo.
Marking the Milestone
"I would like to take this opportunity to wish the very best of luck to our fellow candidate cities," Istanbul mayor Kadir Topbaş said Friday in an editorial made available to Around the Rings.
"Excitement and momentum are building as we enter this final year of our bid to welcome the world to Tokyo in 2020," added Tsunekazu Takeda, president of both the Japanese Olympic Committee and Tokyo 2020 as well as the newest member of the IOC.
Madrid 2020, meanwhile, "has learned a lot along the way and is now a benchmark for the Olympic Movement," said Spanish Olympic Committee and Madrid 2020 chief Alejandro Blanco, adding that the capital has "one year to go before its dream becomes a reality".
The Road Ahead
In the meantime lies a lot of work for both the bids and the 2020 Evaluation Commission tapped Thursday by the IOC, in particular its chair Craig Reedie.
His role begins in earnest Jan. 7, the deadline for cities to hand over their three-volume bid books that IOC members will use to scrutinize the plans and promises of Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo.
After weeks of analyzing these candidature files, the Evaluation Commission then hits the road for a series of three four-day visits.
Tokyo opens the inspection tour from March 4 to 7, followed by Madrid from March 18 to 21 and Istanbul from March 24-27.
Making the Case
Delegations from Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid, meanwhile, will also be traveling far and wide as they try to make up for lost time on the campaign trail.
In a bidding first, the IOC is prohibiting international promotion until Jan. 1, though the ban was briefly relaxed back in April to allow presentations at the Association of National Olympic Committees general assembly in Moscow and may be again for the European Olympic Committees general assembly this December in Eilat, Israel.
Important meetings open to the candidates next year include SportAccord in St. Petersburg, Russia at the end of May; another ANOC general assembly scheduled for mid-June in Lausanne; and a technical briefing back in Lausanne at the beginning of July.
Similar to ones held in 2009 for the 2016 race and last year for 2018, this is the best chance for cities to state their cases to the IOC electorate.
Members will have a report from Reedie’s nine-member Evaluation Commission in-hand as they hear from each of the three cities, then grill them about the nitty-gritty of their bid books.
Two months later, they’ll reconvene Sept. 7 in Buenos Aires for final presentations from Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid in the morning with a decision on where to send the 2020 Olympics waiting as their afternoon activity.
Written by Matthew Grayson
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