Rogge Urges Troubled Annecy Bid to Stay in 2018 Race

(ATR) IOC president Jacques Rogge tells Around the Rings he has encouraged French sports leaders to push forward with Annecy's 2018 bid and believes they will not drop out of the race. But with just a week until the IOC deadline for 2018 bid dossiers, Annecy's crisis-hit candidacy remains without a CEO.

"I’ve had the French authorities online. I’ve had contacts with the mayor. I had contact with [former CEO Edgar] Grospiron, with [IOC member Jean-Claude] Killy. I had contact with the ational Olympic committee and the ministry," Rogge said.

"They want to continue. And they will continue, in a slightly other way with a different approach. But they will continue."

Speaking to ATR in Rio de Janeiro where he attended the 2016 logo launch, Rogge said he had given Annecy leaders encouragement to stay in the race.

"I said they needed to review their strategy. I think France cannot allow itself to drop the bid like that," he added.

The latest setback for the bid came when former environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo turned down an offer from French sports minister Chantal Jouanno to replace Edgar Grospiron who resigned in mid-December citing budgetary concerns.

Jouanno has also been snubbed by several other prominent French politicians and sportsmen to take on the mammoth task of winning hosting rights for the 2018 Winter Olympics, according to French media reports. Annecy is the underdog in the three-city race that includes Munich and PyeongChang.

A spokeswoman for Annecy 2018 told ATR Tuesday that no announcement on a CEO was even scheduled this week. ATR understands that IOC members Guy Drut and Jean-Claude Killy will play a more pro-active role in the new leadership set-up to boost the prospects of the flagging bid.

Rogge insisted the issue was not about ensuring there were three cities for the IOC members to choose from at the Session vote in Durban on July 6.

"I don’t think two or three is a crucial difference. It’s about the fact that this is a bid from a major country in the Olympic world, a major country definitely in winter sport as well as summer sport," he said.

"Whenever there comes a bid, we like their bid. I hope they will be able to regroup as much as possible and as soon as possible. There is still plenty of time."

Rogge suggested Annecy should look to the Rio 2016 Olympic bid campaign for inspiration, especially its big push to IOC members in the final months of that bid race.

"If you look at what makes the difference in a bid, this will happen in a short time. I have the feeling – I might be wrong – that Rio established itself as the leader in our [bid cities briefing] meeting in May 2009," he explained.

Rio was awarded the 2016 Games less than five months later.

"The intermediate meeting of the IOC – there is where Rio made the difference," he said. "And from then on, they continued with the momentum and won easily in Copenhagen."

Rogge said it was important for all three 2018 candidates to present a good case to the IOC members' briefing that is set for May 18 to 19 in Lausanne. That meeting follows the IOC Evaluation Commission visits to Annecy, PyeongChang and Munich in February and March.

"I’ve said it before: the nature of the meeting is totally different [from the IOC session]. At the time of the session, they send a message to the IOC, of course. But mostly also for their own citizens, for their own constituency, the city, the region, the country. They need to do that," Rogge said.

He added: "But the message does not carry as well as the one they can send during the intermediate session when they can focus on facts and figures.

"They don’t have to play the emotional issue and they are not bound by their own constituency.

"It is in these meetings that we see a fantastic dialogue, many pointed questions being put to the cities by IOC members. I believe this is where as much as 80 percent of the decision is being made."

Annecy 2018 is expected to send a small delegation to Lausanne for the bid book handover to the IOC next Tuesday. But there is no word yet on who will be travelling to the Olympic capital. The new CEO would be expected to make the trip.

Grospiron resigned last month after the bid's supervisory board failed to grant his demands for a 12 million euro increase in the bid budget. He claimed more money was needed to stay competitive with rivals Munich and PyeongChang in the seven-month international PR push to the IOC vote.

Written by Mark Bisson.