Q&A: Madrid 2020 on London 2012

(ATR) As the Paralympics open this week, teams of observers from the cities bidding for the 2020 Olympics will be in place.

Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo each have eight official observer slots, an experience which began a month ago with the Olympic Games.

Around the Rings spoke in London with leaders of each city about their impressions so far.

Madrid 2020 vice president for international relations Theresa Zabell is featured in this Q&A.

Around the Rings: What’s been the Madrid experience with the observer program in London?

Theresa Zabell: Our observers are very happy because they say the observer program is a lot more detailed than what they had in Beijing. They are being given a lot more information, and it's a lot of details and down to ground. They are given specific numbers and budgets, so this is very good for them. So the observer program is very well organized.

ATR: From your point of view, what do you see here in London for planning the Madrid bid in 2020?

TZ: It’s always good to see what the other people do. We try to take good note and write down what you think are the most positive aspects and write down what you think maybe you can improve. We think that Madrid being a smaller city than London it would be quicker to get around, one venue to another. Madrid is a smaller city which has excellent transport infrastructure, so I think this would be a great positive aspect for the bid.

ATR: So you think that when you look at the London experience and you look at how Madrid would present the Games, the idea of being compact with a good transportation plan and short distances – is that an asset that you think you bring?

TZ: I think that is one asset, and another asset is that we have very good transport infrastructure. We have very good ring roads around Madrid, which are actually inside the city, and you would be able to use these ring roads to get from one of the clusters to another. Here you have to sort of cross London to get from the Olympic Park to get to where the Olympic hotels are, and then to get to triathlon and beach volleyball. So it’s taking us about an hour. Olympic lanes are good to have, but it’s still taking us a long time.

ATR: Are there strong things? Things that you like for Madrid to learn from?

TZ: I think the Olympic Park is great. They’ve done a great job on the Olympic Park having lots of the venues together in the cluster of the Park. I think this is something we have to learn from, how they’ve gotten many of the venues together.

And also when we have Games in cities like London, and it would be the same in Madrid, you have a lot of atmosphere in the streets, and I think this is very good. This is something I missed in Beijing, for example.

Madrid is a place that the atmosphere on the streets is absolutely incredible, and I think this is a real asset to cities like London and Madrid.

ATR: Is there anything you see here that may cause you to make some changes or adjustments in how your bid is presented in the bid book next year?

TZ: We haven’t had much time to sit around and talk about how we could improve our bid book because everybody is just so busy. We get up early in the morning and go to bed late at night, so we really have to do our brainstorming when we get back to Madrid. We really do not have time to do this here.

ATR: What about the situation of the Spanish economy?

TZ: Well, Madrid at the moment isn’t in its best economical situation, but we are talking about the Games in eight years' time. For example, Spain in 1993 went through a very difficult economical situation. Eight years later in 2001, I was a member of the European Parliament, and everyone in the European Parliament was talking about the miracle of Spain because Spain had gone through a miracle rise in employment in economy and everything.

Spain is a country that can go through very bad situations, but when it gets on track, it rises like nobody can even imagine.

We don’t want the Games next year. The decision is next year, but we want the Games in eight years'time, and in eight years' time I’m sure we’ll be in a better economical situation again.

Conducted in London by Ed Hula.