Olympics committee arrives in İstanbul for inspection /Tourism Culture News

Several members of the Evaluation Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), together with nearly 200 journalists, arrived on Friday in İstanbul, one of three candidate cities for the 2020 Olympic Games, to begin their inspection on Sunday of the city’s venues.

Following the arrival of the remaining 12 members of the IOC committee in the city on Saturday afternoon, the 15 members of the committee, who have already inspected Tokyo and Madrid, the other two candidate cities for the Olympic and the Paralympic Games to be held in 2020, will go ahead with their inspection tour for İstanbul’s Olympics bid.

This is İstanbul’s fifth bid for the world’s biggest sports organization, and the IOC delegation will be received by a number of top-level Turkish officials during their visit, which will end on March 27. After first getting together on March 24 with Youth and Sports Minister Suat Kılıç,members of the commission will be met by President Abdullah Gül at a welcoming get-together at the Four Seasons Hotel in İstanbul, where the group is staying. And on March 26, the committee will be hosted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for dinner at the Esma Sultan Mansion on the Bosporus.

Turkish officials strongly believe that İstanbul, with its unique qualities and some of its venues already completed, has a good chance of being selected as the host city for the 2020 Summer Olympics. “İstanbul, which is the only city in the world that makes it possible to organize the Games on two continents, incorporates all values that the Olympics stand for,” Kılıç has said. “We believe that the world needs the values that İstanbul represents,” he added.

During their four-day visit, the Evaluation Commission will be accompanied by a team of officials headed by İbrahim Kalın, the deputy undersecretary of the Prime Ministry. A number of Turkish officials, including ministers such as Kılıç on March 24, Minister of Finance Mehmet Şimşek on March 25, Minister of Culture and Tourism Ömer Çelik and Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Binali Yıldırım the following day, are set to make presentations on İstanbul’s level of preparedness for the Games to the committee.

The presentations will cover a total of 14 areas including the venues where the Games would be held, such as soccer stadiums and gymnasiums; transportation facilities; historic and tourist attractions; finance; marketing; government and public support for the Games; accommodation facilities; and security.

Turkish officials are expected to be exposed to a shower of questions by members of the committee, who completed their inspection of Tokyo at the beginning of the month and Madrid last week, about their preparations and what İstanbul has to offer the Games should they be held here.

The delegation will submit its report to the IOC in July, and the city that will host the 2020 Olympic Games will be determined at an IOC meeting to be held in Buenos Aires on Sept. 7-10. İstanbul also stands out from the other two candidate cities with letters of guarantee for its candidacy presented by the president, prime minister, speaker of Parliament and 17 ministries of the government. Turkey’s opposition parties also formerly announced their support of İstanbul’s bid.

The members of the IOC delegation arrived in Turkey on a Turkish Airlines (THY) plane, the body of which was specially decorated with an “İstanbul 2020” decal. This is the fifth time İstanbul has been a candidate for hosting the Olympics, whereas it is the third consecutive time for Madrid and the second time in a row for Tokyo.

Members of the IOC’s Evaluation Commission are as follows: Sir Craig Reedie (chairman of the commission; UK), Guy Drut (member of the IOC; France), Frank Fredericks (member of the IOC; Namibia), Nat Indrapana (member of the IOC; Thailand), Claudia Bokel (member of the IOC; Germany), Patrick Baumann (member of the IOC; Switzerland), Eduardo Paloma (head of the El Salvadorian Olympics Committee; Spain), Andrew Parsons (head of the Brazilian Olympics Committee), Stefano Manelli (transportation engineer; Italy), John McLaughlin (IOC finance official; Canada), Grant Thomas (member of IOC working group; US), David Stubbs (IOC environment consultant; UK) and Gilbert Felli (IOC sports director; Switzerland).