Doha’s Olympic bid committee must respond to a supplementary question when it sends an application to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on February 15, according to a report published Tuesday.
“It is the temperature issue,” IOC President Jacques Rogge told Inside The Games in Innsbruck last week.
Doha in Qatar experiences sweltering heat during the typical Olympic Games window of July and August and has already filed for an exception with the IOC to stage the Games in September and October instead when the temperatures are more bearable.
“We have said that we wanted to have information on a certain number of criteria, such as timing of the events, medical measures, prevention of heat and so forth and so forth.
“If the opinion of the IOC about the supplementary report is a good one, then the period would be accepted.”
Doha’s bid for the 2016 Games met all of the technical requirements but was summarily rejected by the IOC because the planned dates did not fall inside the desired summer months. The concern is that alternate dates might conflict with other sports on the calendar causing issues with broadcasters.
The 2016 bid committee said the controversial decision meant the IOC was “closing the door on the Arab world”.
Prior to accepting nominations for the 2020 Games the IOC requested advanced notice if alternate dates were to be planned. Doha filed the required paperwork and the IOC approved the request pending acceptance of the application.
If the supplementary report and the time period are accepted, Doha’s technical scores must exceed a benchmark set by the IOC in order to advance to the candidature phase of the campaign. A shortlist will be revealed in May and the final vote will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in September 2013.
