Koreans let their 2018 Games rivals do the talking

The three candidates to host the 2018 Winter Olympics began the final countdown to Wednesday’s vote by adopting vastly different tactics here on Sunday.

South Korea’s Pyeonchang — bidding to make it third time lucky and viewed as the favourite after two successive runners-up spots —  let their two rivals have their say while they appeared content to keep their counsel.

   They had after all stolen the limelight on Saturday night.

   For there had been much fanfare when South Korean president Lee Myung-bak had swept into Durban, arriving at his beachfront hotel in a motorcade of BMW’s which gave their rivals Munich some satisfaction given they are German made cars.

   Sunday was spent with President Lee lobbying the 100+ International Olympic Committee members that will vote on Wednesday.

   However, as IOC president Jacques Rogge observed, hot favourites  have come unstuck before, thereby giving hope to the French alpine town of Annecy.

   The Belgian former Olympic yachtsman said the pessimism surrounding Annecy’s candidacy could be ill-founded.

   “Their presentation (in May in Lausanne) was excellent,” he said.

   “You have to fight till the end. I always take the battle for the 1994 Winter Olympics as an example.

   “Everybody viewed Ostersund as the unstoppable force, and they were candidates for the fifth or sixth time.

   “But it was Lillehammer who won and delivered a fabulous Olympics. At a certain moment they created the right chemistry in their bid. And that can even come on the final day.”   

Certainly Annecy’s bid president, the charismatic entrepreneur Charles Beigbeder, took the gloves off and came out fighting making  it clear that whilst the others might have other goals, as to who they were trying to win the Games for, their bid was to deliver a gift to the world.

   Although IOC rules forbid making references to rivals, 46-year-old Beigbeder’s remarks in his first salvo were clearly directed at Pyeongchang.

   He appeared to take aim both at its selling point of being from Asia that has only ever hosted the Winter Games twice — both times in Japan and the last time was Nagano in 1998 — and also the fact Samsung have largely bankrolled the bid.

   “We have a vision that serves the entire world, not one country and one continent,” Beigbeder told AFP.

   “We are not here for France, we are here for Olympism. Of course  there would be a legacy for France, but also there would be a world  legacy.

   “Our vision is in line with what the Olympic movement would like  to have now. We are here to put on an authentic Games. We are not there to get a trophy for a company or a country.

   “We want to keep the Games at the top. Inspire the world.”   

Beigbeder also had a go at Munich when he referred to how Annecy  had all the required physical attributes to put on a Games — that is mountains -something that the Germans have had to go out and acquire, buying land from initially reluctant Garmisch landowners for the downhill course.

   “For the Winter Games you need mountains, verticality,” said Beigbeder.

   “We have this. We have Mont Blanc, it is almost 5000 metres. We are no megalopolis renting mountains,” he added.

   The Munich team were much more restrained, skilfully sidestepping the question of what they could do to counter the Pyeongchang strength of opening up a new frontier.

   “The question on July 6 is what is the best solution for the athletes in 2018? bearing in mind all the challenges we have spoken  about before,” said their chief executive Bernhard Schwank.

   “Well the concept we have is a sports driven bid. We enjoy great  support from our athletes, the sporting community and the corporate  one.

   “We have great experience in hosting winter sports events like the last alpine world championships with these knowledgeable fans.

   “For a Winter Games you have to have the best stage for the athletes.”