On the 6th July, 2005 Madrid will know if it has been successful in its bid to bring the 2012 Olympic Games to the City. The final candidates are Madrid, London, Paris, Moscow and New York. The city has never hosted the Olympic Games but was shortlisted for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
The Queen of Spain, Sofia, will be heading a delegation which includes the President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the President for the Community
of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre and the mayor of Madrid, Alberto
Ruiz-Gallardón. Sporting celebrities, include Real Madrid soccer star Raul Gonzalez, five-time Tour de France champion Miguel Indurain and former tennis star Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.
According to a report in the Chicago Tribune:
Madrid maintains its strongest point is
the closeness of the venues to the athletes’ village and the low cost
of its project.Given the IOC’s wish to reduce costs, Madrid’s
bid could seem desirable with an Olympic operating budget of $2.1
billion and separate infrastructure budget of $1.6 billion.Twenty-two
of the 35 planned venues already have been built, while two are being
refurbished, five are under construction and six are awaiting a final
go-ahead.
The Mayor of Madrid says:
"We have 83 percent of the venues already built or in the pipeline
and seven years to do the rest — no other city comes near that."
The article also identifies the following points in the city’ favour:
- Madrid has hosted nearly 90 sports events in the past four years,
including the European swimming championships and European indoor track
championships. The city is also home to one of the world’s most famous
soccer clubs, Real Madrid, whose Santiago Bernabeu stadium downtown
would be a 2012 venue. - In terms of popular and political
support, the evaluation committee report recognized that Madrid’s bid
was backed by all Spanish parties and regions and by more than 80
percent of Spaniards. - Central to Madrid’s bid is the plan for
the main Olympic stadium and other venues to be a short walking
distance from the athletes’ village and about 10 minutes away from both
the airport and downtown. - Madrid also boasts that spectators
would be able to travel to 25 venues by public transportation. The
city’s cheap and modern underground metro would serve more than 80
percent of the sites.
Having been to London recently I would say in terms of transportation and infrastructure, Madrid wins hands down.
Madrid 2012 Olympic Candidature Site
Related Articles
Olympics 2012 (BBC)
Madrid 2012 (Olympic Blog)
GamesBids.com
Madrid confident of upsetting big guns in Singapore (Reuters)
madrid 2012