| | LONDON -- The race is on for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Ten cities, led by early favorite Beijing, submitted preliminary
applications with the International Olympic Committee before
Tuesday's midnight deadline.
The other applicants are Bangkok, Thailand; Cairo, Egypt;
Havana; Istanbul, Turkey; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Osaka, Japan;
Paris; Seville, Spain; and Toronto.
Under new rules prompted by the IOC's biggest corruption
scandal, the cities will face a rigorous review to determine
whether they meet the minimum requirements for staging the
Olympics.
Cities passing that test will become official bidders. The
winner will be selected by a secret IOC ballot in Moscow in July
2001 by the organization's full membership.
Visits to candidate cities by IOC members have been banned in a
move to prevent the payoffs, lavish gift giving and other
improprieties that tarnished Salt Lake City's winning campaign for
the 2002 Winter Games and other recent Olympic bids.
As many as 14 cities had expressed interest in bidding for the
2008 Games. But Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cape Town, South Africa;
Lisbon, Portugal; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, all dropped out.
There were a record 11 bids for the 2004 Olympics, which were
awarded to Athens. The field was reduced to five finalists.
IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch said the 10 applications
for the 2008 Games showed the lure of the Olympics had not suffered
as a result of the scandal.
"The prestige of the Olympic Games is higher than ever," he
said by telephone Tuesday. "The crisis and problems we faced
during the last year may have affected the organization but not the
Olympic Games."
The field of 10 includes cities from Europe, North America, Asia
and Africa. But the absence of Buenos Aires and Rio means there
will be no bid from South America -- one of the two major regions,
along with Africa, where the Olympics have never been held. Buenos
Aires and Rio bid for the 2004 Games.
Also notable is the absence of South Africa. Cape Town made a
strong bid for the 2004 Games but decided not to enter this time.
Dan Moyo, secretary general of South Africa's national Olympic
committee, said the country probably will push for 2012. He said
sports officials think more time is needed to deal with weaknesses
of the 2004 bid, including inadequate facilities and roads and Cape
Town's crime. In addition, South Africa is favored to hold soccer's
2006 World Cup.
Of the current candidates, Bangkok, Cairo, Havana, Kuala Lumpur
and Osaka are first-time applicants. Paris is the only one of the
10 that has previously held the Olympics, in 1900 and 1924.
On paper, the strongest contenders are Beijing, Paris and
Toronto.
With the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece, the IOC will not be
inclined to take the games back to Europe four years later. That
will be Paris' biggest obstacle.
Beijing, on the other hand, has geography and other factors in
its favor.
The Chinese capital lost by just two votes to Sydney in the
campaign for the 2000 Olympics. Stung by the defeat, Beijing sat
out the 2004 race but seems perfectly placed for the 2008 run.
With more than 1 billion people, China offers a huge, untapped
market for the Olympics. But its human rights record, which dogged
Beijing's 2000 bid, could be a political issue again.
Representatives of the 10 cities will meet with IOC officials in
Lausanne, Switzerland, on Feb. 24 to be briefed on guidelines for
the bid. Those procedures will be approved by the IOC executive
board in Sydney, Feb. 16-18.
The IOC most likely will want to narrow the field to five or six
viable contenders.
New bid procedures were adopted by the IOC in December as part
of a package of reforms prompted by the Salt Lake City scandal.
The screening process is designed to save money and keep
no-hopers out of the race.
"It will ensure that any city that becomes a bid city could
actually host the games," said Anita DeFrantz, an American IOC
vice president who helped draft the new procedures.
DeFrantz expects the bid cities to be approved by the end of the
year.
Once the cities are selected, the national Olympic committees in
those countries will sign a contract with the IOC, giving them
responsibility and oversight for the bid.
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