2016 Olympic Bid Cities briefing IOC Members in Lausanne
The four candidate cities bidding to host the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in 2016 - Chicago (USA), Tokyo (Japan), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Madrid (Spain) - are all at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne (Switzerland) on 17th and 18th June to give a technical briefing to the 93 members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who are present for the event. The first day's presentations, which resulted in dozens of detailed questions, were followed on the next day by an opportunity for members to ask more follow-up questions to each city about their projects, as well as giving the media an opportunity to meet with each of the Candidate Cities. IOC President Jacques Rogge said, "Since my election in 2001, we have been making a concerted effort at the IOC to improve our transfer of knowledge capacities and to ensure that the evaluation process continues to be clear and offers criteria from which the cities can be evaluated. The fact that we have four cities with very strong projects bidding for the 2016 Games is testament to that work and to the success of recent editions of the Games. As part of the natural evolution of our effort, today's briefings are allowing us to continue to bring more transparency, fairness and professionalism to the evaluation process, which has been underlined by the active participation of my fellow members." The briefings come closely on the heels of the four-day visits of the IOC's Evaluation Commission, led by IOC Member Nawal El Moutawakel, to each of the Candidate Cities. The Commission is now in the process of producing its evaluation report, which will be distributed to the IOC members no later than one month before election day. The final vote will be held in Copenhagen (Denmark) on 2nd October 2009. IOC Member and IWF President Dr. Tamás Aján participated in the briefing meetings held at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
