SUMMER & WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES NEWS including PARALYMPICS

 

Olympic Games Bid Procedure

Olympic Games host cities are chosen by the IOC, following a lengthy process beginning some 8 or 9 years before the proposed games. Cities around the world are eligible to apply as long as they can fulfil the stringent requirements.

Hosting the prestigious Olympics can be an extremely expensive but rewarding experience and the competition for this accolade is awesome. Athletes from all disciplines dream of one day being able to represent their country on home soil.

Cities within a country must apply to their NOC (National Olympic Committee) for approval. This in itself is fiercely contested with great rivalry between competing cities. The city chosen to go forward will have demonstrated to the NOC their ability to present an application which is considered to have a good chance of success in later selection stages. Even this first stage involves a lot of expense and cities cannot even contemplate submitting an application whithout being confident that they at least stand a good chance of being chosen to host the Olympics.

Following this, a brief description of the proposed bid has to be presented to the IOC for their consideration. If a city passes this hurdle it is placed on a short list and then has to go on and prepare a full blown bid to be presented to the IOC by a certain date. The Olympic bid should demonstrate quite clearly that the candidate city will be able to hold Olympics in keeping with the general ethos of the games and provide facilities for a successful games from all aspects. Proposed or existing venues for all Olympic events have to be shown and either sites or plans available for inspection, as well as acommodation for competitors, supporting teams and others. Funding and all-round effects, short and long term, on proposed area are looked at. Transport between venues and accommodation is another consideration as are security, enthusiasm, spectator facilities and many other facets of a very extensive and prestigious international event. It is a very complex, time consuming and expensive project which requires an enormous amount of dedication from the Olympic Bid Team, usually a mixture of business people, sporting experts and athletes.

After an exhaustive examination of each city's bid and a final scrutiny by a visiting team of IOC inspectors, the members of the Olympic Committee vote for the city they consider to be the most appropriate and the winner is announced.