Bid cities underline strengths in 2018 Games presentations

Apr 7, 2011, 15:25 GMT

London - Munich underlined the financial strength of its sponsors and Germany's winter sport tradition as it hoped to win support Thursday for its bid to host the winter Olympics in 2018.

Bid teams from rivals Annecy, France and Pyeongchang, South Korea also made 20-minute presentations at the SportAccord convention which is attended by International Olympic Committee delegates and leading sports officials.

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told delegates Munich's bid had widespread public support and the full backing of the government.

There has been opposition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the proposed venue for Alpine ski, where some landowners have refused to give up their land for the Olympics. A referendum on the bid is to be held at the town on May 8.

But Friedrich said on the sidelines of the conference he was 'very optimistic' that the referendum would show clear support for the Games.

The Germans 'love to debate everything until the last minute' but 'no country puts more fans in the stands for winter sport than Germany,' he said.

Thomas Bach, head of Germany's Olympic sport movement and an IOC executive board member, said it was time for Germany to host the winter Games for the first time since Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936.

Pyeongchang, which is making its third successive bid, is regarded as the favourite. It used its presentation to highlight the untapped markets in Asia for winter sport and the compactness of its bid.

Bid chairman Cho Yang Ho emphasised the bid's message of spreading winter sports to Asia by saying Pyeongchang wants 'to leave a legacy of new horizons like ever before.'

He added: 'We want to plant new seeds to grow new roots for winter sports. Korean people understand hard work ... and we have a new story for the Olympic movement.'

Annecy, which is considered the outsider, is offering a friendly, village-style atmosphere in the heart of Europe's most popular winter sports region.

However, absent from the presentation was Jean-Claude Killy, the three-time Olympic ski champion and IOC member, who appeared in a video message.

The presentations are seen as important stage for the three candidates three months ahead of the IOC vote on the 2018 venue. A key date is to follow when the bid teams make presentations at an IOC technical briefing in Lausanne, Switzerland on May 18-19.

The IOC will select the host venue by secret ballot at its session in Durban, South Africa, on July 6.

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