POSTED: February 24th 2011
NewsUpdate
Munich 2018 hits back over Garmisch critics as IOC commission prepares to fly in
KEIR RADNEDGE / Sports Features Communications
LONDON/MUNICH: Munich's Winter Olympics bid team has sought to play down the risk of embarrassment next week when the IOC's evalution commission hits town to assess the city's oursuit of the 2018 Games.
Bid leaders, including chair Katarina Witt, are continuing to play down the long-running irritation raised by land-owning groups in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Games bid opponents, with clearly-judged timing, have moved to stage a referendum on whether the town should feature in the bid project.
However a statement from Munich 2018 said: "We are convinced that the overwhelming majority of the population is behind the bid and opinion polls corroborate this. Our latest regional polls indicated that almost two thirds of people in Garmisch-Partenkirchen are in favour of hosting the 2018 Winter Games.
"Referenda are an important political instrument in any open and sophisticated democracy like Germany. There was a referendum organised during the IOC Evaluation Commission's visit to Vancouver and they went on to stage a memorable Winter Games with the full backing of millions of passionate fans."
Recently Witt, conceding that originally the issue had been mishandled, told SportsFeatures.com: "More than 80pc of people are all in favour of the Olympic project but, last summer, a minority voice gained big coverage in the media about some disagreement. In some ways they were right because discussions had not been undertaken at the right level.
"It wasn’t a bad reminder for us in the bid that we cannot think that securing the Olympics means everyone, automatically, will make it work. We needed to get people who owned some of the land onside. Now the communication channels are open and there is a constant dialogue."
The IOC evaluation commission has already visited bid rivals Annecy and, last week, PyeongChang in South Korea. Munich, seeking to achieve Olympic history as the first city to host both summer and winter Games, will know its fate on July 6 in Durban.
Keywords · 2018 Winter Olympics · Munich · Garmisch
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