Sarkozy to Annecy, IOC Visit Nears End

(ATR) French president Nicolas Sarkozy offers his full support to the Annecy 2018 bid in a presentation to the IOC Evaluation Commission Friday, with one more day to go for the IOC visit.

"You have a great candidature, a magnificent region and you want to host these Games. We are all going to pull together in a bid to get them," the president said in his lunch address to IOC inspectors, according to news agency AFP.

"If we win them, we'll deserve it," he said, adding that even if the small Alpine town failed in its bid, the investment in new venues and modernisation of infrastructure would benefit region.

In what seemed like an oblique reference to Annecy's recent leadership and budget problems and drawing parallels with his own election campaign, Sarkozy emphasised that the bid team should move forward with confidence into the last five months of the campaign.

"One has to tread a long road to become president of the Republic, it's even worse than for Annecy," Sarkozy was quoted.

"No one believed in it [his campaign] but gradually I began to see people believing. The night of the election, well, everyone believed."

IOC inspectors today visited the Chamonix hub, a one hourdrive from the Annecy venue cluster. They visited the sites for Alpine skiing and were briefed on the prospective venues for men's ice hockey, the Olympic villages and the main media center.

The main Olympic village 10 minutes north of Annecy will cost $200 million to build. Located about 40 minutes from Geneva airport, it would have 2,500 beds.

Earlier this week, Annecy 2018 CEO Charles Beigbeder told Around the Rings that the Olympic villages element of the bid book had drawn more than 20 questions at a briefing with the IOC.

Members of the media followed the IOC venue tour, crossing paths withcommission chairman Gunilla Lindberg and the 11-member delegation for acouple of photocalls. French IOC members Guy Drut and Jean-Claude Killy joined commission members for one photo opportunity in Chamonix.

ATR was told that the evaluation commission members had been impressed with their visit to the stunning ski resort that was home to the first Winter Games in 1924.

Later in the day, the IOC group held closed-door meetings with Annecy officials, covering various themes including marketing, finance, and the political and economic climate.

Further presentations to the IOC commission take place on Saturday morning.

In the afternoon, Lindberg and IOC Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli will hold a press conference to give their assessment on the four-day inspection visit. This will be followed by an Annecy 2018 news conference.

Written and reported in Annecyby Mark Bisson