Olympics Prague

The motto of the third nomination is Olympic Games for the Czech Republic as it should take place in other cities across the country as well.  The IOC has tended to prefer, however, more compact bids. The Czech Olympic Committee plans to develop 130 sport centres in 75 cities in the process of Olympic Games candidature.

When Prague revealed its bid book, it moved to a more compact concept to hold the Games in the heart of the city with venues close together - most not more than 20 minutes from each other or from the Old Town Centre of Prague. Three main clusters were organized with the Olympic park at the center. Five venues are already built and ready, 12 would need upgrades and nine permanent new venues would have been constructed with an additional seven venues being temporary for the Games only.

Specifically, three sport centers were to be built – a velodrome for cyclists in Prague or Brno; a swimming stadium that would be constructed from the existing Prague-Sutka Aquapark; and the major Olympic complex to be built on the outskirts of Prague in Letòany. Five circular children’s pools were to be built to symbolically represent the Olympic rings. As Prague is land-locked, yachting will be in Lipno, rowing and canoeing in Racice, and slalom in Troja. One major stadium already in place is the modern Sazka Arena, which would host gymnastics. There are plans to rebuild the area around the huge and underutilized Strahov Stadium as an Olympic village.

In response to presidential concerns over white elephant venues after the Games (such as Athens’ unused baseball stadium), officials stressed the Games would not bring dozens of new sporting facilities to Prague. Many existing facilities would be refurbished, most Olympic sites would be just temporary, with “only about 30 percent remain[ing] permanent.” Even the possible main Olympic stadium in Letòany would be developed in such a way that it could later be transformed into part of a convention center.

- wikipedia

On March 22, 2007, Prague confirmed its bid when the Prague Assembly voted 53-10-3 in support of launching an official bid. Tomas Petera was the head of the Praha Olympijska (Olympic Prague) company.

This was the third try by Prague and the Czech Republic to host the Olympic Games. Previously Prague placed a bid for 1920 Summer Olympics which was won by Paris and planned a bid for 1980 Summer Olympics but Warsaw Pact invasion and normalization put an end to these plans; the Olympics were hosted by Moscow. Useful recent experience includes the recent hosting the 2004 Men’s World Ice Hockey Championships.

The Czech Republic (including Czechoslovakia and Bohemia) has a strong sports legacy, which appeals to the IOC. They have attended every games except the Athens 1896 Games and the Los Angeles 1984 Games. The Czechs have been especially proficient in gymnastics, and for winter sports, ice hockey. The current decathlon world champion is Czech Roman Šebrle, who as tradition dictates, holds the title of “World’s Greatest Athlete” and who was identified to be a potential face of the Games.

Prague is known as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and as a popular tourist destination, it holds many of the cultural aspects that appeal to the IOC.The bid book indicates around 38,000 hotel rooms are planned by 2016, but this amount is short of IOC expectations and is far behind competing bids.

Prague allocated 45 million crowns to the Olympic movement for studies, advertisements, and opinion polls. The bid budget of US$22 million alloted for the application and candidacy phase was roughly half that of other bids.

-wikipedia