POSTED: March 3rd 2011
NewsUpdate
Home-town heroes from Garmisch back human legacy from Munich 2018
KEIR RADNEDGE & LAURA WALDEN in Garmish-Partenkirchen / Sports Features Communications
GARMISH-PARTENKIRCHEN: German husband-and-wife ski legends Christian Neureuther and Rosi Mittermaier could not have revealed their dream of inspiring new heroes for a new winter sports generation in more timely fashion.
Neureuther and Mittermaier spoke up as the International Olympic Committee’ evaluation commission drove 70 minutes south of Munich to check out the city bid’s partner hub of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
The town in the shadow of the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest peak, first welcomed the Winter Olympics, in what evolved into a historically contentiously context, in 1936.
Now it is proposing to host snow sports such as ski jumping, Nordic combined, alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, and snowboarding if Munich overcomes opposition from Annecy and PyeongChang to win the vote to bring the Winter Games flame back to the Bavarian Alps in 2018.
The 14-strong IOC inspection team, led by chair Gunilla Lindberg, has already visited France and South Korea, and was accompanied into the mountains by IOC vice-president Thomas Bach, bid chair Katarina Witt and ceo Bernhard Schwank.
They heard a welcoming brass band, tasted the traditional white sausage but – more important – heard a dream of tomorrow from heroes of yesterday.
Key reasons
Neureuther said: “We hope to bring the Games here in 2018. It’s important for many reasons but particularly because we have to new heroes for the our young people now and in the next years. We have a great legacy in winter sports and it’s important for the sports – and for the Olympic movement – that we create new heroes for the next generation.”
Mittermaier, a double gold medalist in Innsbruck in 1976, echoed his comments, saying: “We are very proud here of all the international championships we have staged here. All the athletes love coming here and the support of the crowds has to be seen to be believed. This is the heritage which has been created and which we want to extend to a new generation.”
The road from Munich to Garmisch leads past the city’s trade fair complex which would be used as main press center and international broadcast center. Munich, like PyeongChang but unlike Annecy, is offering free internet access for journalists.
Keywords · 2018 Winter Olympics · Munich · Mittermaier · Neurether · Garmisch-Partenkirchen · media
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