Treo

I'm yet to see any of the three cities coming up with a compelling argument like Rio did!

There is some people that are only missing a sign with the words "I'm robbable, please do steal"; I mean, I see everyday people in Brussels (which is not one of the safest cities in Europe to put it this way) walking around the streets taking less care for their belongings than they would usually do in their hometown; people that go in a cafeteria, leave their expensive camera sitting alone in the table while going to the bathroom, etc, and things like that. The attacks of this trolls against Istanbul should not be taken as the majority of Spanish people playing very hard and dirty on Istanbul...

Interesting enough... http://www.aroundtherings.com/articles/view.aspx?id=42799 Don't know if you know about this man, Terence Burns. Apparently he was the thinking brain behind the success of Beijing, Sochi, Rio and Pyeongchang, in 2018 and i'm not sure about London. I've researched a little about this man and, apparently, he is supposed to be a marketing and PR genius, and he has was hired last March by... Madrid! I've read somewhere that this man writes all the speeches, and tells everyone on the bid teams when to talk and when to shut up and supervises everything there is about PR, marketing, or videos. Maybe he was the key of the success of Madrid's presentation in Lausanne last july. Could this be a sign of things to come?

I think that that is not an appropiate thing to say, especially from an IOC member to claim not being triumphalist but still saying that the bid for which they are lobbying can have a first round win, some members among which she is trying to secure the vote might feel offended by such declarations. She is completely right to think whatever she wants, all right, but I think that she ought to keep those declarations to herself and claim such things in a newspaper interview. One has to be much more discrete and, in other words, humble, when "negotiating" and lobbying for this kind of things; and what I'm saying applies to anyone who makes such declarations, not only for Marisol Casado just for being a Spanish member, I don't want anyone to feel attacked here. Nevertheless, I'm intriguied by what she says, even if she should not say these things, one does not make such declarations without being very confident. do they? Could Madrid win first round? Eeeerm... I shall think not.

OMG, this 2020 race has become a race of three cities crawling on the floor, back-stabbed by their own problems, fighting to be the first to arrive in the finish line just alive enough to grasp a win. Certainly not a glamorous race...

I've found this short interview with Seb Coe while roaming around the Spanish media. It pretty much sums up everything we have discussed about having a compelling "why" rather than a "how", and coming from an IOC member, this should be very much not only in the mind of the Madrid team, it also applies for Tokyo and Istanbul. He very clearly says that having bid previously is neither an advantage or a disadvantage, pretty much that the IOC never feels like they owe something to someone, in contrast with what Madrid supporters say that this is Madrid's third consecutive attempt, or for that matter, Istanbul's fifth.

Well, with a pool of almost 20 cities showing interest for 2024, the IOC is bound to have at least 4 or 5 serious and competent fools willing to spend their money in the olympics, it's possibly as many cities as they can ever hope for, with or without Europe. I really don't understand what has happened in 2020 just to end up with only our cute little three cities.

I can say now that I am very, very surprised, as there a a few articles around that say pretty much the same as this one. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/03/madrid-princely-show-wows-ioc-race-still-open/ I am really curious to know what the team from Madrid pulled off their sleeve to do this. This might as well turn the race for 2020 upside down.

This is what the german media is saying right now about the bid presentations in Lausanne: http://www.sport.de/medien/3008f-17b979-548f-15/punktsieg-fuer-madrid-im-kampf-um-olympia-2020.html "Victory Point for Madrid in race for 2020 olympiad Madrid's battle for the 2020 Olympics made ​​up ground on Istanbul and Tokyo. After a 45 minute long presentations of the three candidate cities for the extraordinary IOC Assembly in Lausanne, and now the race is considered to be more open than ever. The Spanish Crown Prince Felipe gave an emotional speech. "Today is a very important day for us," said Alejandro Blanco, President of the Madrid application. The 125 General Assembly of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is on 7 September in Buenos Aires, and will select the host of the spectacle in seven years' time. "All three cities have a different approach. At the end of each IOC member will have to decide for himself what he wants for the future of the Olympic Games," said the German IOC member Claudia Bokel. As a member of the evaluation that had visited all three cities." Well, this was unexpected, and apparently they even got a standing ovation and everything at the end of the bid team presentation, seems like Madrid is not that out of the race...

I've been to Madrid many times and I totally loved it, however I think it just lacks that sex-appeal or wow factor that the IOC is always looking for. I've no doubt that Madrid would host some really great games, and I would be really happy if they were chosen come September, but I think that the IOC will prefer a bigger extravaganza other than the "reasoable spending" proposed by Madrid. But in the end, it's all geopolitics, i'm sure that all the countries that plan to bid for 2024 are more than willing to get European bids out of the way to make their path to the olympics easier, so they might end up voting for Madrid.