IOC names 3 finalist cities to host 2020 Summer Games
With the IOC already overseeing preparations for the next two Summer Olympic Games - in London this year and Rio 2016 - their focus has now switched to the host of the 2020 edition. On Wednesday, the IOC Executive Committee narrowed the list of candidate cities from five to three.
Mark Adams, IOC spokesman says, "The executive board has decided that the following cities can continue to the next phase and become candidates for 2020. In the order of drawing lots, Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid."
The race to host the 2020 Summer Games is now a three-way battle between Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo after Qatar’s Doha and Azerbaijan’s Baku were eliminated as candidates.
Next for Madrid, Istanbul and Tokyo is 16 months of furious campaigning as they try to convince the IOC they are up to the task of staging the world’s biggest sporting spectacle. Madrid is bidding for a third consecutive time, but this time its bidding against the backdrop of Spain’s financial crisis.
Thersa Zabell, vice president of IOC says, "And a word of thanks to all the people that made it possible in the last 10 years that we’ve been working to reach this far. We got all the way through to the end in the last two bids and I hope this time we’ll make it to the very end and get allocated the games for 2020."
All three cities have bid before but Istanbul, bidding for a fifth time, could finally be rewarded for its persistence. Bridging Europe and Asia, Istanbul is seen by many as an attractive choice but Turkey’s pursuit of football’s 2020 European championships continues to provide a distraction that the IOC said presented "significant risks".
Yalcin Aksoy, head of Istanbul 2020 Bid Committee says, "I feel very good for my country. It’s an historical moment and there is one Games, one city, two continents, so Istanbul really offered to the Olympic movement unbelievable possibilities, so I am very proud to be here today."
Tokyo,which hosted the Games in 1964, will have to convince voters to bring the back-to-back Olympics to Asia with South Korea’s PyeongChang already set to stage the 2018 Winter Games. There will also be questions over whether the country is capable of taking on another massive challenge as it continues to rebuild from the tsunami and earthquake that devastated much of Japan last year.
Ousted candidate city Doha, which was proposing to hold the 2020 Olympics in October rather than the usual July/August schedule to avoid the Gulf Arab state’s searing summer heat, is already hosting the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament.
Gilbert Felli, IOC excutive director says, "The reason why Doha is not in the second phase is an addition of a certain number of criteria that you will see in the report including the criteria of the change of the date but that is not the only reason that Doha is not retained in this second phase."
The IOC will announce the winning city on September 2013.
资讯快讯：国际奥委会5月24日宣布了2020年夏季奥运会3个申办候选城市名单，它们是(按抽签结果顺序)：伊斯坦布尔(土耳其)、东京(日本)和马德里(西班牙)。此前，巴库(阿塞拜疆)和多哈(卡塔尔)也参与了第一阶段的申办但因种种原因未能成为申办候选城市。国际奥委会感谢所有申办城市为支持全球奥林匹克运动付出的积极努力。上述3个申办候选城市将从现在开始按国际奥委会要求着手准备各自的申办文件，其中最重要的是要体现他们对2020年奥运会的深刻认识和将要为之实施的行动计划。他们还将迎接国际奥委会评估委员会的访问。在对每个申办候选城市访问之后，评估委员会将于2013年7月国际奥委会召开全体委员2020通气会之前递交一份详细的技术评估报告。
（编辑：何莹莹）