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Paris City of Romance happy to woo IOC
PARIS (Reuters) -- Just a few days before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) picks the host for the 2008 Olympics, Paris bid chiefs are doing all they legally can to ensure the City of Romance wins hearts and minds. "When you are playing in a match you fight as hard as you can and if you think about the next match, what you are doing next, that is a sure way of losing," Noel de Saint-Pulgent, general manager of the Paris 2008 bid committee told Reuters. Paris, Toronto and Beijing are favorites to stage the 2008 Olympics ahead of Osaka and Istanbul, following a report by the IOC evaluation committee. Toronto and Paris bid officials, who met in the Canadian city in May, have dismissed speculation that the two might be planning a second-vote alliance to try to oust Beijing if one of them was dropped from the final voting process. "We are playing the game to the rules of the IOC. We are not against any of the other cities and we are not the owners of the people who are going to vote," said de Saint-Pulgent. Having served as the ministerial delegate for France's staging of the 1998 soccer World Cup, de Saint-Pulgent should know a thing or two about "playing the game." "Each city has its own trump cards but we are convinced of our candidature. We feel very good because we came out ahead with two other cities. We really believe Paris can win," he said. The IOC report, compiled after a lengthy bid process and visits by the evaluation team to each of the candidate cities, said it believed Paris could stage an "excellent Games." In the wake of the Salt Lake City bribery scandal, IOC members outside the team were banned from visiting the bidding cities for the first time, leaving them to make up their minds from the evaluation report. It recognized the considerable support the Paris bid had attracted from athletes, the community and government authorities and welcomed plans for a fully integrated Paralympics. The IOC report also praised "well thought-out" suggestions for sports venues, which combined the use of current sites such as the celebrated Stade de France with city center areas and parklands as well as temporary facilities for other events. But the commission raised concerns over the challenges posed by building the Olympic village in the run-down and industrial area of St-Denis to the north of the city. De Saint-Pulgent said Paris bid chiefs had resolved certain aspects of the planning that had worried the commission, including changing initial plans which envisaged the transport mall being inside the village. He said Paris had chosen the underprivileged area near the proposed Olympic stadium at the Stade de France precisely because it would leave a legacy after the Games, as the IOC report had acknowledged. De Saint-Pulgent also countered IOC concerns over potential traffic congestion. "The traffic caused by the Olympics will be less significant than traffic reduction caused by the large numbers of people who leave Paris to go on holiday in July and August. Even with the Olympics, large numbers will still go away," he added. Paris bid organizers have said 2008 could be the city's final chance to host the Games because the proposed site of the Olympic village is likely to be too built up after that. "We think it is our last chance to host the Olympics in Paris. But until July 13 we are not thinking about what happens after," de Saint-Pulgent said, declining to comment on whether Paris would bid for the 2012 Games if it did not win this time. "We will consider the future when the time comes," he said. Saint-Pulgent said if Paris did win the final IOC vote in Moscow on July 13, bid organizers would throw a big party to coincide with the July 14 national Bastille Day holiday but would then quickly settle down to forming an organizational committee which should be in place by early 2002. From now until the vote, bid chiefs would be busy with IOC-regulated trips abroad, which often included meetings with other bidders, and preparing the final presentation which each of the cities would give in Moscow before the final vote, he said. Organizers said a poll carried out this year by market researcher IFOP showed 79 percent support for the Games in France. A similar IOC-commissioned poll showed 65 percent support in France and 66 percent in Paris. Since their earlier poll, bid organizers have continued with television and poster campaigns extolling the virtues of a Paris Games, with numerous high-profile companies and celebrities backing the bid. But de Saint-Pulgent said the real priority now was to press on with convincing IOC members to vote for Paris, adding that French athletes needed to talk to their foreign peers about the bid so they might approach their IOC representatives. Likewise, he said, France's three IOC members and two honorary representatives should talk to as many of their fellow members as possible to raise the profile of Paris's candidature. "People in France know about the bid and are convinced. Now the priority is to convince the electors in the IOC within the respect of the Olympic charter," he added. In the past month, Paris organizers have received a setback with news that bid chief Claude Bebear was being investigated by police. Bebear, founder of insurance giant AXA, was questioned over a former AXA subsidiary which is suspected of money laundering. "If I was not absolutely sure I have nothing to do with the things I'm accused of, I would never agree to continue this mission," Bebear said. Olympic leaders said the matter was not a concern for the IOC as an investigation under French law did not necessarily lead to charges.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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