2012 Olympic candidates to be cut
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The nine cities hoping to stage the 2012 Olympic Games face a cull this week as Olympic chiefs meet to draw up a shortlist of candidates.
The nine applicants -- Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Madrid, Moscow, New York City, Paris and Rio de Janeiro -- will learn their fate on Tuesday.
Sources close to the International Olympic Committee believe the field is likely to be cut to as few as five.
However, the quality of the bids and the heavyweight nature of the applicants could see as many as seven cities go through to the next stage.
The IOC will select the winning city in July next year.
While IOC president Jacques Rogge said last year that he could envision all nine cities going through, sources now say some cities will definitely be cut.
Four years ago 10 cities were slashed to five at this stage in the race to stage the 2008 Games.
Along with Beijing -- who eventually won the race to host the Games -- Osaka, Toronto, Paris and Istanbul were invited to submit formal bids.
Havana was axed along with Bangkok, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur and Seville.
Cuban officials say this time that Havana should be awarded the Games because it is the world's top medal winner per capita.
However, the city faces rejection once again for weak infrastructure and inadequate accommodation, the same reasons it was turned down four years ago.
BIDS LAUNCHED
The nine contenders for the 2012 Olympics launched their bids in January with the emphasis on compact and easily accessible venues.
Favourites Paris and London promoted the attractions of their landmarks, Madrid promised an environmentally friendly Games while New York dubbed itself the "world city."
Paris bid organisers say they will stage beach volleyball at the foot of the Eiffel tower and host many of the events at two clusters on the edge of the French capital.
London organisers say they will hold the beach volleyball competition in Horse Guards Parade.
Seventeen sports, including athletics and swimming, would be staged at a new venue in the city's deprived East End.
Madrid is proposing a green Games, concentrating on public rather than private transport, New York is focusing on its energy, drive and spirit while Moscow promises to stage "the best, most compact Olympics ever."
Istanbul, making its fourth consecutive bid to stage the Games, is calling itself a "bridge between civilisations."
Leipzig, a city of only 500,000 people, cites its size as an advantage while Rio de Janeiro promises that all venues would be situated within a 26km radius of each other. South America has never staged the Games.
FUTURES SAFE
Meanwhile, the Olympic future of softball, modern pentathlon and baseball is safe until 2012.
The International Olympic Committee said no sports would be excluded from the Games for the next eight years.
The trio of sports had faced expulsion at the IOC session in 2002, but were given a reprieve when members resisted a proposal to drop them all together.
Following emotional pleas by leaders of the three sports at that meeting in Mexico City, IOC members voted to postpone any cuts of entire sports until after the 2004 Summer Olympics.
The IOC has not thrown a sport out of the Games since 1936.
"After each Games we will review the sports," IOC president Jacques Rogge said. "We have frozen the programme at 28 sports and at 10,500 athletes.
"If any sport wants to come in, one will have to go. But no sport will be excluded before 2012."
