POSTED: Thursday June 23rd 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MUNICH 2018 CELEBRATES OLYMPIC DAY WITH YOUTH-FOCUSED SPORTFESTS

Bavaria plays host to a series of events promoting the values of Olympism

Munich, 23 June 2011: Germany has embraced Olympic Day with its customary passion and enthusiasm, with Bavaria again proving a focal point for sporting celebrations that will touch the lives of young people all over the region this summer.

Munich 2018 will be supporting a wide range of sporting and cultural carnivals in the next few weeks. They will offer a glimpse of the magical Festival of Friendship atmosphere that awaits the Olympic family should the Bavarian capital win the honour of hosting the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games on 6 July. The extensive programme will also give an insight into how Munich 2018 intends to fulfil one of its most ambitious pledges to the Olympic Movement: reigniting the passion for the Winter Games in an entire generation of young people. Today saw the opening of the Youth Sports Festival in Burghausen, Bavaria. The event will bring together 2000 young sports ambassadors from all over Germany for four days of sports, music and entertainment

Bernhard Schwank, CEO of the Munich 2018 Bid Committee, emphasised the importance of Olympic Day for the next generation:

‘Munich 2018 is a bid for the athletes of tomorrow. For 100 years, the youth of the world has been at the very core of the Olympic Movement. To motivate kids and young people to participate in sports will remain one of the central challenges in our future. To host an Olympic and Paralympic Games in Munich, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Lake Königssee would provide an invaluable contribution to achieving the goal.’

Munich 2018 has cultivated a prominent social media presence; connecting and engaging with young people will be key to inspiring the next generation of Olympians and Paralympians. To mark Olympic Day, the Munich 2018 Bid Committee uploaded a new album to its popular Facebook page, with photos of the team playing sports. Click here to see the people behind a bid that truly is by athletes for athletes: http://on.fb.me/jYWogc or http://bit.ly/k2FQV4.

Bavaria will also welcome tens of thousands of fans to events like the annual Munich City Race on 26 June: more than 18,000 competitors will run, each with a desire to perform well, make friends and enjoy the warm, vibrant atmosphere that typifies large sports events in Germany. 

On 3 July, just three days ahead of the IOC vote, Munich will host the second Munich Sports Festival, offering enthusiasts of all ages the opportunity to try out up to 50 different sports. After the great success of the Winter Sport Festival in February, up to 40,000 sports fans are expected to flock to the Bavarian capital to soak up the atmosphere. A highlight of the festival will be the Olympic Day Run, where competitors as young as 15 will take part in the event as Munich once again demonstrates is capacity to host successful, inclusive events.

In celebration of the occasion, three of Germany’s sporting heroes will take part in a panel session at the Munich Stadtmuseum. Heike Drechsler, two-time Olympic champion in long jump; Felix Loch, Olympic gold medallist in luge; and Anna Schaffelhuber, three-time Paralympic bronze medallist in alpine skiing, will discuss just what the Olympic Movement means to them. The Museum will host a unique poster exhibition entitled, ‘Fascination Olympics - Five Rings, One Ideal’. The exhibition was organised by the German Olympic Academy and opens two days ahead of the IOC vote on 6 July.

Spectators and athletes enjoying Olympic Day celebrations in the coming weeks will benefit from Munich's wealth of experience in staging mega-events; the Bavarian capital’s operational excellence makes it the ideal venue for safe and secure global celebrations of sports. This timely reminder of Munich's unsurpassed event-hosting credentials comes at a crucial time for Munich 2018 as the Bid Committee finalises preparations and continues gaining momentum ahead of the all-important presentation to the IOC at the 123rd IOC Session in Durban on 6 July.

Background
Munich, in collaboration with Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Berchtesgadener Land, is applying to host the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The application will be put together and managed by Bewerbungsgesellschaft München 2018 GmbH, with Katarina Witt as Chair, Bernhard Schwank as CEO and Jürgen Bühl as Managing Director. Shareholders in the application organisation are the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) with 51 per cent, the City of Munich (30 per cent), the Free State of Bavaria (nine per cent), the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (eight per cent) and the district of Berchtesgadener Land (two per cent). The bid is being supported by national sponsors Adidas, Allianz, the BMW Group, BayWa, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Post, Flughafen München GmbH, Lotto Bayern, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, METRO GROUP, and the Sparkasse Finance Group, along with national suppliers ARGE (Albert Speer & Partner and PROPROJEKT), Deloitte, Getty Images, GfK Verein, Hubert Burda Media, IMMO 2018, Messe München GmbH, Norton Rose LLP, Munich Olympic Park, pilot sport and Stadtwerke München GmbH. More information about the concept, the progress of the application and many other aspects can be found at http://www.muenchen2018.org/en.

Bewerbungsgesellschaft München 2018 GmbH
Munich 2018 Bid Committee
Olympiapark München
Spiridon-Louis-Ring 21
80809 München

Responsible for contents:
Bernhard Schwank and Jürgen Bühl

Press Contact:
Simone Seefried
Agnes-Pockels-Bogen 1
80992 München
Telephone:        +49 89 540428-317    
Mobile: +49 176 840 532 26
E-Mail: presse@muenchen2018.org

Online Press Area:
http://www.muenchen2018.org/en/press

# # #

---

Keywords · Munich 2018 · IOC · Thomas Bach · Katarina Witt · Bernhard Schwank

---

Name: Simone Seefried
Organization: Munich 2018 Bid Committee
Email:
Phone: 4989540428317
URL: http://www.muenchen2018.org

---

Please refer all questions to the company listed above issuing the press release. SFC will not be able to assist you with any inquiries and disclaims any content in these press releases.