POSTED: July 1st 2011
NewsUpdate
Neureuther urges IOC to end Munich's long wait for return of the Winter Games
KEIR RADNEDGE / Sports Features Communications
MUNICH/LONDON, Jul 01: Former Olympics skier Christian Neureuther is appealing for the International Olympic Committee to give his successors the chance he never had - to compete in the Winter Games on his own home slopes.
Neureuther, now 62, is an ambassador for Munich which, next week in Durban, will be rivalling Annecy and PyeongChang for the right to host the 2018 Games. Yet Germany has not played host since Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936.
Garmisch's world-famous championship venues form a key component of the Munich bid and no-one knows them better than Neureuther for this is his home town.
He said: "I competed so many times on these slopes and will never forget that atmosphere. The cheering, the songs, the cowbells - just incredible. I was lucky enough to compete at three Winter Games, in 1972, in 1976 and in 1980 but I never had the chance to mix that buzz of Garmisch-Partenkirchen with that special magic of the Olympic Games.
"In fact, now 10 generations of athletes haven't had that chance. I really hope we get the opportunity to put that right at Munich 2018 and create Winter Games history.’"
Felix Neureuther, the son of Christian and also a Munich 2018 ambassador and another Olympics competitor, echoed his father's words.
He said: "I competed at the World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen this year and you could just feel how much it meant to the town, and to Bavaria and Germany. As an athlete, it was a fantastic experience - the facilities, the set-up, the volunteers, all perfect. For me, that makes it all the more amazing that it's been 80 years since we had a Winter Games in Germany."
Other local supporters to speak out and underline the across-the-board nature of local support - after earlier uncertainties - have included local business leaders, 95-year-old Ingeborge Wörndle who was a stadium announcer in 1936, 21-year-old Alpine skier Monica Hübner and Heinz Mohr, head of the town's Olympic training facilities.
Keywords · International Olympic Committee · Munich · 2018 Winter Olympics · Neurather
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