(London) — The two-time Olympic Figure Skating Champion, Munich 2018 Chair Katarina Witt led her team in a presentation Thursday to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Sport Federations at SportAccord in London. As she took the podium, a video of her medal-winning performances filled the video screen.
A video described by Witt as “a taste of Munich” showed the art, culture in sport in and around Munich.
Lord Mayor of Munich, Christian Ude described his city – “a city of festivals” with art and culture “right where the venues are”. Oktoberfest hosts 6 million people, the largest cultural festival in the world.
Ude suggested that by transforming Summer Games venues for the Winter Games – the 1972 Olympic legacy will be extended from 40 to 80 years.
Germany’s Federal Minister of the Interior, Hans-Peter Friedrich highlighted the strong government support that the bid enjoys. Public support has risen 25% to 73% over the past few months.
“In Germany we love winter sport,” he said.
Munich 2018 CEO Bernhard Schwank described the venues offered by the bid and described them as a flyover video appeared on screen described as the reality of winter sport in Bavaria.
BMW Group’s Head of Sales and Marketing, Ian Robertson, took the podium next and described BMW’s partnership with the bid and the Olympic movement. He also spoke about the entire contribution German corporations make to sports.
“Through their sponsorships, German companies already now fund 50% of the revenues of the seven winter Ifs on the Winter Games programme,” he said.
Robertson spoke of the scope of the German sports audience – 1 million spectators and a cumulative television audience of over 1 billion viewers.
“That’s the kind of reach sponsors want.”
Katarina Witt took the podium again to describe the athlete experience the bid will deliver.
“I came back to the Olympic movement to help Munich create a plan that delivers the ultimate athlete experience,” she said.
“We are not just promising full stadia, we guarantee full stadia.”
Witt introduced a video showing athletes at the Ski World Cup held recently in Garmisch-Partenkirchen that featured international athletes such as Lindsey Vonn from the United States endorsing the venue for 2018.
DOSB President Thomas Bach concluded the presentation with strong thoughts and words.
He said that there has been no Winter Games in Germany for 80 years; ten generations of youth who have missed this opportunity.
“The challenge of strengthening the Olympic brand, not just for one market, but for all sport and the entire Olympic family,” Bach described as being a key motivator of the bid.
“That’s the kind of legacy we want to leave through Munich 2018 – a legacy for the whole Olympic movement … a festival of friendship … in an Olympic atmosphere you will never forget.”
After the presentation Witt was very upbeat.
“We wanted to show the support from every level we can,” she said.
“It was a very strong presentation.“
”We did everything the way we hoped.”
Annecy will present next at 11:30 (local London time).
