| New York and Moscow are at the tail end of the Olympic race The 117th session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will be held in Singapore on 6 July. The main result of its work will be the summing up of the voting results of the IOC members who will choose the capital of the 2012 Summer Games. Today, five cities are fighting for this right: London, Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris. However, in the near future the number of candidates may be reduced to four. As it became known, recently serious and unforeseen problems arose in the New York organizing committee.
The cause for concern was a statement by the American Speaker of the New York State Assembly, Sheldon Silver, who spoke out against the plan to build the main Olympic stadium in the western part of Manhattan. Silver said the project, estimated to cost $300 million in public funds, seems unprepared and a little premature. The speaker presented his point of view at a meeting of the New York State Control Commission, of which he is a member.
True, not everyone shares Silver’s opinion. The commission meeting, scheduled for Monday at three o'clock in the afternoon, did not begin until half past five, as a crowd of people supporting New York's candidacy gathered around the site of the proposed stadium.
It should be noted that Silver chose a very unfortunate moment to voice his position, which, however, he did not hide before. The day before, the IOC Evaluation Commission released the findings of its inspection visits to the five candidate cities. The main flaw in New York's application was precisely the uncertainty surrounding the construction of the Olympic stadium. At a press conference after the commission meeting, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg did not hide his disappointment. "If we don't have a stadium, we can't have the Olympics," he said. “The IOC Commission report shows that without clear guarantees for the construction of the Olympic stadium, we, unfortunately, will not be able to win the elections.”
However, it is too early to say anything definite regarding New York. The mayor of the American city said that he would seriously discuss this issue with members of the organizing committee. And according to other IOC members, there is no point in dramatizing the situation in advance. Judging by the reports of the IOC evaluation commission, New York's bid does not appear to be any less preferable than the other four candidates.
Moreover, all five commission reports are extremely correct and do not give a reason to name a clear favorite and an outsider a month before the elections. Almost all candidates had certain pros and cons. If we talk about the latter, then, for example, London and Paris are pointed out to the insufficient development of sports infrastructure. Madrid - due to the remoteness of the hotels. Moscow - due to the lack of initial basic information, which made the work of the members of the evaluation commission difficult.
According to the general manager of the Moscow 2012 bid committee, Alexander Chernov, the published analysis of the evaluation commission should be regarded as a “working moment.” This is done so that members of the organizing committees, having studied the commission’s reports, really weigh their chances and draw conclusions. There are often cases when, after getting acquainted with the documents, cities withdrew their candidacies. But what is clear now is that all five candidates are worthy to continue the fight.
However, all these conclusions do not fit well with the information struggle that has unfolded in the media. Already today, victory is predicted for London and Paris, and Madrid and Moscow are among the “lagging behind”. Meanwhile, experts from the Swiss Center for the Study of Enterprises and Societies, cited by ITAR-TASS, published their own analytical report on this issue on Monday. In their opinion, from the point of view of the originality of the idea, it is Moscow’s application that looks the most convincing and preferable. In addition to this factor (the Russian concept was called the “Olympic River”), the Swiss added two more important criteria: the dynamics of the city’s development over the past 10-15 years and the motivation of the population. So, summing up all this data, they came to the conclusion that Moscow is ahead of other candidates. Olga ERMOLINA |
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