The Race Is On - 2014 Olympic Bid Finalists Have Work To Do

Today’s short list announcement by the IOC begins the final leg of the race to host the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. PyeongChang, Salzburg and Sochi can tweak their campaigns based on the IOC’s evaluation report published today. Their full bid dossiers are due to the IOC on January 7, 2007.

Salzburg received the highest aggregate score on the report followed closely by PyeongChang and Sochi - but the IOC Evaluation Commission broke the scores down into 11 categories. Of those categories Salzburg led its competition in nine,

Salzburg already has a winning plan but trails its two competitors in the category of “government support, legal issues and public opinion”. Expect the political gears to start moving to correct this.

PyeongChang should probably focus on improving their Olympic Village plan where its scores fall well short of Sochi and Salzburg. In most other categories, the South Korean bid is close to Salzburg but minor improvements in the “sports venues” and “environmental conditions and impact” categories would be helpful. PyeongChang led the “government support, legal issues and public opinion” category and tied with Salzburg in “accomodations”.

Sochi has the most work to do, most notably in the “finance”, “sport venues” and “overall project and legacy” categories. Other areas such as “accommodation” and “experience from past sports events” are issues, but not easily correctable.

“Transport concept” was the only category led by a non-finalist - Almaty was the top scorer.

It is common for bids to undergo major revisions in the time between the original questionnaire response and the final bid book, and there is even an opportunity to make further amendments shortly before the final IOC vote. The work has just begun and the race is on. Write or read comments about this article

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