SWITZERLAND: OLYMPIC GAMES: Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo submit Candidature Files for Olympics 2020 bid

Record ID: 331187

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: OLYMPIC GAMES: Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo submit Candidature Files for Olympics 2020 bid
  • Date: 7th January 2013
  • Summary: OLYMPIC RINGS
  • Embargoed: 22nd January 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA3KVVE7BC1A79NPQQYMFO5L7O3
  • Story Text: Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo submit Candidature Files to the International Olympic Committee for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics bid.


    Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo - the three cities bidding to host the 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympics - handed their Candidature Files in to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Monday (January 7).
    The IOC will elect the host city on September 7 at their session in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
    The Tokyo 2020 delegation included Homare Sawa, the FIFA 2011 Women's World Player of the Year and a member of Japan's Olympic silver medal soccer team at London 2012, and Paralympian swimmer Takayuki Suzuki.
    Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, is bidding for the fifth time in the last six rounds of voting.
    Speaking outside the IOC headquarters, Istanbul mayor Kadir Topbas said the city has the capacity to host the Games.
    "Napoleon once said that if the world was a single state, the capital would be the city of Istanbul," he said. "We want to host the 2020 Olympic Games. We want a part of the world to be in Istanbul for one more time and we have the capacity to do that."
    Tokyo is hoping to land the Games as it seeks to recover from the March 2011 deadly earthquake and tsunami and the resulting nuclear crisis, and bid CEO Masato Mizuno believes hosting the Olympics will restore the country's hopes and dreams.
    "First of all, we believe in the power of sports, and we believe in the Olympic spirit and our own sporting strength. If we can hold this Olympics in Japan, we can give the world lots of excitement and energy," said Mizuno.
    "Particularly for Japan, which has had such a sense of disruption, we can get some of our energy back again, and looking towards the Olympics, give people dreams and hopes, especially young people."
    Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Olympics, lost out to Rio de Janeiro in the race for the 2016 Games after failing to capture enough public support for the bid.
    Although details of the bids will be made public on Tuesday (January 8), Mizuno highlighted a few of the differences from Tokyo's last bid.
    "The difference from the last bid would be we have a clear and a simple slogan, 'Discover Tomorrow', " he said.
    "Also we have two big changes in the plan, which is the new Olympic village location, which is wider than last time and also we have, we build a new national stadium, the same location as the 1964 stadium, so those are the two big differences," he added.
    The capital is planning to construct a new Olympic stadium with a retractable roof, irrespective of the IOC vote, ahead of the 2019 rugby World Cup.
    The IOC Evaluation Commission will conduct four-day visits to the three bidding cites, starting in March.
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