Bulgaria's capital Sofia is now out of the race for hosting the Winter Olympic Games in 2014 after the International Olympic Committee shortlisted three of the candidates.

Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, Austria's Salzburg, South Korea's Pyeongchang, - all three cities pointed as favourites were selected by the IOC Executive Board as the Candidate Cities for the XXII Olympic Winter Games in 2014.

IOC's Working Group concluded "Jaca, Sofia and Borjomi do not have the requisite level of capability at this time to host the 2014 Olympic Winter Games."

We are pleased with the decision that was reached through a unanimous consensus. We congratulate the three Candidate Cities and thank the other four Applicant Cities for their hard work and enthusiasm. We look forward to a fair and exciting competition, IOC President Jacques Rogge said.

All in all, seven Applicant Cities, Sochi, Salzburg, Jaca, Almaty, PyeongChang, Sofia and Borjomi had, before Thursday's decision, gone through the first phase, which consisted of a detailed assessment by an IOC Working Group of each city's ability to organise the Winter Games.

IOC explained that with the cut in the number of candidate Cities, it wants to avoid those cities, which do not yet have the full capacity to host the Olympic Games going through the whole bidding process. The major organization also vowed to give the cities that did not enter the second phase pointers about improvements that would be needed in order to have a better chance to successfully bid for the Games in the future.

A Bulgarian delegation was in Lausanne to back Sofia's bid. The delegation included Sofia mayor Boyko Borissov, Stefka Kostadinova, chair of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee, State Sports Agency chair Vessela Lecheva, Mario Al-Jebouri, head of the State Tourism Agency.

Novinite.com
22 June 2006, Thursday

BOC Chief: We Must Persist in Olympic Bidding

Bulgaria is obliged to persist in putting forward bids for hosting Winter Olympic Games, the country's Olympic chief Stefka Kostadinova said minutes after the saddening news Sofia quits the 2014 race.

In third of its history candidature to host Winter Olympics, Sofia was trimmed from the short-list of bidders in the very first round.

"I am not used to losing and feel extremely bad," Olympic champion Kostadinova said. "But the fight goes on."

Sochi (Russia), Salzburg (Austria) and PyeongChang (Republic of Korea) were accepted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board in Lausanne as Candidate Cities to host the XXII Olympic Winter Games in 2014.

Novinite.com
22 June 2006, Thursday

Sofia Mayor Slams Govt on Missing Olympic Bid Support

Sofia Mayor Boyko Borissov lashed the government for its scarce support to the 2014 Olympic Games bid.

Talking after the announcement that Sofia is not proceeding with its candidature, Borissov pointed at the "lack of governmental support" as concluded in IOC's final report.

He compared the Bulgarian state funding of EUR 250 M as meager to Sochi's lavish financing of billions promised by President Vladimir Putin.

This is the third unsuccessful candidature of Bulgaria for Winter Olympics. The country tried its chance for the first time in 1992, when France's Albertville finally won.

In 1994 Bulgaria was closest to the host dream, but was short of 16 votes only to defeat Norway's Lillehammer.

Novinite.com
22 June 2006, Thursday

In Their Own Words: 2014 Cities On the Scene in Lausanne

(ATR) Joy and disappointment are the obvious reactions to the outcome of the IOC decision to ask three cities to bid for the 2014 Olympics, relegating four others to try again. On the scene in Lausanne, Around the Rings has reaction from the contenders.

Salzburg

Salzburg is the clear leader in the race based on the IOC report on the 2014 cities. But the level of public support is among the lowest, with just 40% of the Salzburg region in favor of the Games.

Salzburg CEO Fedor Radmann says improving the standing of the bid locally is an important next step.

"A small part of the population in Salzburg was after the last bid pessimistic and maybe don't know how their feeling should be. The feeling is coming up more and more, and we can come close to 65% very soon, in winter.

"If we do serious work, we will be able to convince the IOC and the members. And if this is felt in Salzburg, the population will get more and more proud of its city and its feeling," says Radmann.

PyeongChang

PyeongChang was the leader for government support in the IOC report, tied with Salzburg for accommodation but given a middling grade for the Olympic Village.

Bid chairman Seung Hoo Han says the IOC has the chance to expand the reach of winter sport in Asia with a PyeongChang Olympics.

"PyeongChang is unique, located in East Asia. We will be able to expand the Olympic Movement, more then any other city out of Asia. We have a 1.3 billion Chinese, who can travel a lot. So, by having Winter Olympics, we will have the impact, not only in China, but in South East Asia."

Han says PyeongChang also presents a chance to work towards unifying Korea.

"By having success for Winter Olympics we will be able to promote peace. That is the idea of Coubertin as he initiated the modern Olympic Games."

And he says government support means the works needed for the Games will be built.

"From president downward, government is fully behind us. I am sure that for the construction of infrastructure, we will have enough support."

Sochi

Finishing third and fourth place in most of the categories rated by the IOC, Sochi, a summer resort city, received high marks for accommodation and the Olympic Village.

Bid CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko, speaking at the only press conference held by a 2014 city after the short list announcement says Sochi offers a strong bid.

"We provide a unique, once in a lifetime compact plan, a lot of sport facilities, government guarantee for all," he says.

"Our transportation plan calls for three new roads with Olympic lanes, also a railway that will bring 75,000 people in an hour from the coastal part to the mountains.

"Sochi is secure," added Cheryshenko.

"It's the summer residence of President Putin and has the same level of security as Moscow."

Elena Anenkina, chair of the Sochi 2014 board says the bid is based on partnership.

"In Sochi, government, sport, city and business works together. At first, we had the idea of mountain resort, later it became the Olympic Games, which will make many changes."

Almaty

Almost made the short list, but fell short in accommodations, sports experience and government support. Almaty had the highest ratings for transport among the seven cities. Bid director Valdimir Smirnov says Almaty will be back.

"We belong to the strongest candidate cities for 2014, but unfortunately IOC-President Rogge informed us, that will be just three candidate cities for 2014 and unfortunately, we didn't belong to the three strongest cities," Smirnov tells Around the Rings in Lausanne.

"We had an excellent vision, how we wanted to present Olympic Games. We lost just a little on the last phase, but we came close to winning the decision. We are ready, because we are ready to organize the Winter Asian games in 2011 and in the next two years, we prepare every sports objects and new infrastructure, new airport, and then our basic plan will much stronger than today."

Jaca

Perhaps the most disappointed of the 2014 applicant cities is Jaca, which on it fourth try for the Winter Games is still coming up short. Jaca failed to score well in transport, accommodation and its overall plan for the Games.

Jaca managing director Antonio Fernandez says he thought the IOC would think more highly of the Spanish bid.

"We were expecting us to pass to the next step. We have analyzed the report and see that in two issues, accommodation and transport, both of them have a strong impact in the final result."

"We knew our challenges in transport. We propose an alternative, a high speed train. This has not been understood by the IOC."

He says it is clear Jaca must build more before it bids again.

"We need to increase the accommodation, increase the infrastructure. But year by year, it is changing."

Sofia

The Sofia bid generally scored low in the IOC report, edging into the green zone (qualified) in just three areas, government support, Olympic Village and sports experience.

Bulgarian Olympic Committee President Stefka Kostadinova, women's high jump record holder says she wants to play a more active role in the next bid.

"Unfortunately, I became very late president of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee [elected in October] so I didn't have enough time to organize it in a perfect way. The initiative committee was created before my election as a president.

As an athlete, I was not used to losing. It's a pity for me, but I would like to congratulate the winners.

Borojomi

The first-time bid from Georgia failed to budge the the needle of the IOC's meters, scoring on the low end of every category. Audrius Budkevicius, one of the Borjomi leaders says the results were not unexpected.

"Just from the beginning, we knew, this competition and bid process will be the biggest challenge for us and our main goal was not only to participate, also to promote our country. And I think so, that we fulfilled our main goal for us."

Budkevicius says another bid from Georgia will need more support from the government than for 2014.

"It's the decision of the bid committee, it's practically the decision of the whole country. You can see, cities that won have the biggest governmental support."

Thursday, June 22, 2006
Salzburg CEO Fedor Radmann. (ATR)
www.aroundtherings.com

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