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Canadian official says Paris out of it
TORONTO (AP) -- A Canadian sports official says the Paris bid to host the 2008 Olympics lacks support from African IOC members and lags behind competing bids by Toronto and Beijing. Denis Coderre, Canada's secretary of state of amateur sport, told The Globe and Mail newspaper in a story published Wednesday that he has met in recent weeks with 10 of the 16 African members of the International Olympic Committee who will vote on the 2008 host city on July 13 in Moscow. He said they prefer Toronto to Paris. "Paris is out of it," Coderre said, according to the newspaper. "We (Toronto and Beijing) are the two front-runners." Other cities competing for the 2008 Games are Istanbul and Osaka, Japan. Beijing, which lost by two votes to Sydney, Australia, in the race to host the 2000 Games, has been considered the favorite. Coderre told The Globe and Mail that Toronto had a strong chance. "Some people feel (IOC president) Juan Antonio Samaranch is pushing the buttons for China, but I had assurances that the people who evaluated the candidate cities had free hands," the newspaper quoted Coderre as saying. "I also know that Hein Verbruggen [chairman of the IOC evaluation commission] and others were very moved at how Toronto's bid was dedicated to making it an athletes' Games -- and it's been that way from the beginning."
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