By STEPHEN WILSON
By STEPHEN WILSON
Associated Press
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Less than four months before the IOC vote, the three cities vying for the 2020 Olympics took their campaign to a key international audience on Thursday — with each claiming to be the safest and most financially secure choice at a time of global uncertainty.
Officials from Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo made presentations to the SportAccord conference in St. Petersburg, their first chance to pitch their bids in public to sports and Olympic officials.
With speeches and videos, officials promised compact games, packed venues and convenient transportation. They’re hoping to gain momentum in a race that will culminate with the vote on Sept. 7 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The IOC evaluation commission will issue a report on June 25 assessing the three bids.
On July 3, the candidate cities will make presentations directly to IOC members in Lausanne, Switzerland.
All three cities are repeat bidders: Istanbul is back for a fifth overall time, Madrid is bidding for a third straight time and Tokyo for a second consecutive attempt.
Each said they had learned from their previous defeats and improved their bids.
“In the past, Turkey bid for the games as an emerging nation,” Istanbul bid leader Hasan Arat said. “This time, Turkey is bidding as an emerged nation.”
With financial issues looming over the bid race, all three sought to portray themselves as risk-free choices.
Spain has been battered by recession and is facing an unemployment rate of 27 percent, issues which have hung over Madrid’s candidacy.
Madrid brought Jaime Garcia-Legaz, Spain’s secretary of state for trade, to hammer home the message that the city’s bid is financially secure. He said Spain will have steady economic growth in the next five years.
“Spain’s economic fundamentals are sound, diverse and fully able to support the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games and so is the Madrid 2020 budget,” he said. “The fundamentals of the Spanish economy are strong and deep.”
Garcia-Legaz noted that Madrid’s infrastructure budget for the games is only $1.9 billion, “one of the lowest in Olympic history.”
Istanbul’s is $19 billion and Tokyo’s $4.5 billion.
Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Olympics, praised its reputation for safety and reliability.
“I understand that many people are saying that our bid is the ‘safe’ option in this campaign,” Tokyo Governor Naoki Inose said. “What I don’t understand is why some people seem to think that this could be a bad thing. We are proud that our city is the safest in the world.”