Bidding for the Games -- 2016 Cities Hit the Road

(ATR) Cities bidding for the 2016 Olympics make plans for visits to the Americas, Asia and Europe in the coming weeks…More news inside the latest Bidding for the Games…

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ATHENS, Greece:  A fire of the Olympic rings are lit in a pool in the Athens Olympic Stadium during the  2004 summer games opening ceremony, 13 August 2004. Some 10,000 athletes representing 202 countries will march together in front of 70,000 spectators during the spectacular opening, kicking off a fortnight of sporting competition that is costing 5.8 billion euros (7.2 billion dollars) to stage. AFP PHOTO / ARIS MESSINIS  (Photo credit should read Aris MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images)
ATHENS, Greece: A fire of the Olympic rings are lit in a pool in the Athens Olympic Stadium during the 2004 summer games opening ceremony, 13 August 2004. Some 10,000 athletes representing 202 countries will march together in front of 70,000 spectators during the spectacular opening, kicking off a fortnight of sporting competition that is costing 5.8 billion euros (7.2 billion dollars) to stage. AFP PHOTO / ARIS MESSINIS (Photo credit should read Aris MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Worldwide Travel for 2016 Cities

The four cities in the race for the 2016 Olympics are preparing their teams to stay on the road. After the three weeks of the Beijing Olympics last month, bid leaders and Paralympics experts from Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo have spent days this month back in Beijing for the Paralympics.

Then its on to Busan, South Korea, in two weeks, where the biennial IOC World Forum on Sport, Education and Culture will take place from the 26th to the 29th.

Look for high-level teams from the 2016 cities to attend the event which has drawn no media attention. Still IOC members such as Juan Antonio Samaranch, Jr. will make the trip to Korea to represent Madrid. All the cities will attend as observers and will not make presentations to the forum.

A week later, Samaranch and other bid leaders will head to Acapulco for the annual assembly of PASO, the Pan American Sports Organization. A milestone in the 2016 race, the meeting will provide the first opportunity for these four cities to present themselves publicly to the Olympic family since being selected in June to the shortlist. The four will make brief presentations to the 42-nation assembly, an early gauge of the effectiveness of their appeals for the Games.

Made up of national Olympic committee officials, PASO covers the Americas, a region with 17 IOC members – and two of the four bid cities in the 2016 race. Presumably Chicago and Rio de Janeiro as native sons in the PASO clan will make it difficult for Madrid and Tokyo to gain traction in the Americas. But both will be seeking support from the 17 members of the IOC in the Americas should Chicago or Rio falter in the early rounds of voting in October 2009.

The 2016 bids get a brief rest after PASO before they jet off to Bali for the Olympic Council of Asia assembly October 21, taking place around the first edition of the Asian Beach Games.

November will bring the cities to Istanbul for the European Olympic Committees annual meeting, where the cities will also make presentations.

Meetings of the African and Oceania continental associations take place in 2009, more stops in the long road to the 2016 Olympics.

Bid Briefs

Chicago 2016 and Mayor Richard Daley hosted a reception this week for hometown Olympians who competed in Beijing, a group that included Cat Osterman (softball), Sean Rooney (volleyball), Dwayne Wade (basketball), Matt Grevers (swimming) and Roger Nielsen (weightlifting).

The U.S. bid also announced this week that 1,000 new applicants have signed on to volunteer for the Chicago bid since the start of the Beijing Olympics, bringing the total number of volunteers to 5,000.

Madrid 2016 Paralympics coordinator Mariano Ruiz says he is impressed with what he’s seen in Beijing this week.

“I have been fortunate to experience what it is like to compete at this level and I have been very impressed with what I have seen in Beijing. Our challenge now is to learn from Beijing to ensure that Madrid delivers the best Paralympics possible in 2016.”

Rio de Janeiro 2016 could be emphasizing the use of biodiesel fuel in the transportation fleet it would provide for the Olympics. The blend of diesel and bio fuel is supposed to go into a test run on some bus and ferry routes in 2009.

“We will select major routes that link the main areas planned for the Games, namely Deodoro, Barra da Tijuca, South Zone (Copacabana) and Maracanã, and identify the buses that will use biodiesel. There are around 1,600 buses allocated for use by the Olympic Family, and I believe that we can use the fuel on other routes as well”, says Waldir Peres, superintendent of the Urban Transport Agency.

Tokyo 2016 is days away from the launch of a schools program designed to educate youngsters about the Olympics, including history, philosophy, sport and the Tokyo 2016 bid, says spokesman Masa Takaya. The curriculum will be used in schools in the Tokyo area he says.

Written by

Ed Hula

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