Olympic debate rages on during skiworlds (News Feature)

By John Bagratuni Feb 20, 2011, 10:18 GMT

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany - Local organizers tried hard to maintain the view that Munich's 2018 Olympics bid did not overshadow the running of the skiing world championships which ended on Sunday.

Olympic bidders thought likewise and kept a low profile at the February 8-20 championships, with bid chairwoman Katarina Witt only present on the final weekend.

Witt said she hoped that athletes and officials would 'spread the word' about the all but flawless organization and good atmosphere.

Among the locals, Munich's Olympic bid, which proposes all ski competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, was the hottest topic in town as the ski event provided a small taste of what could come 2018.

Some can't wait for Olympic athletes, officials, the media and fans from around the world to descend on the Upper Bavarian resort with a population of 26,000.

Others will hope that the International Olympic Committee elects Pyeongchang or Annecy on July 6 to host the Games, there is a NOlympics movement and a group of around 60 farmers and landowners who flatly refuse to make their land available for the Games.

A truce was established for the duration of the ski worlds which advocates and opponents will have used to gather more ammunition.

Olympic supporters will refer to the lively atmosphere during the fortnight in a community in which 70 per cent of the businesses are related to tourism. They say the Games are an opportunity for the hosts to make themselves known all around the world.

They will also cite a recent report in which the Garmisch-Partenkirchen region was the area in wealthy Bavaria with the least economic development potential. Olympics could provide a much needed boost in infrastructure and business.

Opponents will use the same report to insist that money should be spent only on projects that really help the community, which in their opinion doesn't include tearing down the local swimming pool and ice skating training centre and building modern ones instead.

They will also point out that the ski worlds did not bring gigantic income for shop, hotel and restaurant owners, and dismiss the party atmosphere as too commercial. They also say summer tourists outnumber skiers, a trend that could gain momentum because of global warming.

While Olympic supporters appear to have a comfortable majority, there remains a seemingly widespread underlying fear that the Games would lead to urbanisation and environmental change at the foot of Germany's highest peak, the 2,962-metre Zugspitze.

'After long deliberation I voted in favour of the Olympics. But I don't know what it will all mean for us,' one leading local politician told the German Press Agency dpa.

It adds to the Olympic uneasiness that the formerly two communities of Garmisch and Partenkirchen were merged by force by the Nazi regime in 1935 in order to organize the 1936 Winter Games there in a more efficient way.

Parents or grandparents of several of the opposing farmers and landowners were reportedly dispossessed for the 1936 Games - and the 1940 ones which were also due to be held in Garmisch before being cancelled because of World War II.

An exhibition on the 1936 Games, 'The dark side of the medal,' opened on Tuesday after years of preparation. Its opening created controversy because several locals were not amused at all that it was also used to advertise the 2018 bid.

Witt - a former world-class figure skater who won Olympic gold for former East Germany in 1984 and 1988 - wondered in this respect whether Germans have 'a tendency to judge things too much,' but that will not stop the Olympic debate in town.

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