Katarina Witt Increases Role with Munich Bid
Katarina Witt tells Around the Rings she looks forward to taking on the role as the public face of the Munich bid for the 2018 Olympics.
Witt, already chairman of the bid, is now the public face of the Munich campaign after Willy Bogner stepped down as CEO this week due to illness.
"I’m taking on this responsibility but this is very much a shared effort, on everyone’s shoulders," she tells ATR in a telephone interview from Germany.
"I may be the most well-known known person here, and that’s why I am the face of the bid. But it’s still a team effort," says the two-time Olympic champion in figure skating.
"It’s like when you go into competition as an athlete, you rely on your team, you rely on your coach, your teachers, on your family. It’s the same here, nobody fights alone," she says.
Witt says from spending 80 percent of her time on the bid, her new role requires a full time commitment she says.
Ahead for her and the Munich team, as well as for the rival bids from PyeongChang and Annecy, is the first formal international presentation for the bid. That will take place at the Acapulco general assembly for the Association of National Olympic Committees.
"We’re all looking forward to this, all three bid cities. I think it’s very important. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.
"This is our main focus for the international stage, to bring to life the things we have already promised in our mini bid book, telling the magnificent concept we have in Munich and Bavaria," Witt says.
Durban Bidding for 2020
Durban stands alone as the only South African city interested in bidding for the 2020 Olympics.
Durban is the only city that submitted a bid to SASCOC, the country’s NOC.
SASCOC invited Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg to submit bids.
At the SASCOC annual meeting over the weekend, Tubby Reddy, SASCOC secretary general made the announcement.
The South African government must give final approval to a bid.
A host city for the Games will be selected at the 2013 IOC Session. Bidding will formally begin following the 2011 Session, which Durban is hosting.
Lake Placid Considering Third Olympic Games
One of the leaders of the Lake Placid Youth Olympic bid tells Around the Rings the city is now leaning toward bidding for the 2020 YOG.
James McKenna, president of the Lake Placid Convention and Visitors Bureau said the city could bid for the 2016 YOG, but the looming deadline makes a bid unlikely.
"Certainly we have to work through our NOC" he said.
"It seems like the timing for ’16, it’s our understating that submitting the intent to bid was this spring, and you know, the USOC has been refocusing their efforts, we’re sort of supporting how they’re preceding and we hope that we’ll be in a position to seek the 2020 Youth Olympic Games."
McKenna says a group of bid leaders met with USOC CEO Scott Blackmun over the summer, who was visiting the training facilities in the city, a legacy of the previous two Winter Olympics staged in Lake Placid, in 1932 and 1980.
"We expressed our interest for 2020, we’ll see how it goes. We have to see how it plays and see where the USOC wants to go. If they’re ready to submit bids we will be."
McKenna said a team from Lake Placid would visit the Innsbruck YOG in 2012.
"We just want to get a flavor of how their preceding, what their commitments are. Our goal for looking at the Games is certainly to provide a venue for youth to stay involved in sport, but also to use it for some sustainable efforts here in Lake Placid.
"We think the Youth Games are more appropriately sized for us in the future."
No formal decision on bidding has been made however. McKenna said should the USOC decide to bid for a Winter YOG "we would certainly be there."
McKenna said "I think we’ll get some indications in the next couple years" if the USOC will bid for the Games.
Rogge: "No Reason" Australia Couldn’t Stage Games Again
IOC president Jacques Rogge says Australia could bid for a third Olympics without any negative reaction.
Rogge made the comments to The Australian newspaper.
"We have a high respect for Australia" Rogge said. "You are a population of 22 million which ranks fourth or fifth in the world (in Olympic medals). There is no reason why Australia should not bid in the future."
He added that a "reasonable interval" between Games was needed however.
"There is no mathematical formula, but if you see what Madrid has been able to do - coming close to victory within 20 years of the previous Games - this is about the range of possibilities."
Australian Olympic Committee chief John Coates said it will be decades before Australia stages a third Olympics.
"It could happen, but it is unlikely to come our way until probably 2030.
"Africa will get a go, the Middle East at some stage will get a go and Europe has to be slotted back in there as well."
Written by Ed Hula III.
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