Durban, South Africa – Annecy 2018 Bid Chief Charles Beigbeder fended off questions from reporters Monday about controversial remarks he made to AFP a day earlier.
He had alluded to PyeongChang’s close ties to Samsung and Munich’s with partner BMW and said that Annecy wasn’t trying to win a trophy for a company.
“Things have to be said,” Beigbeder explained.
“But I’m not talking about the other bids – this would of course be unethical and against the rules so I don’t want to do so.
“We love the Games, we love Olympism, we want to strengthen it even more and to do so we propose the best of France, to be very spectacular Games with incredible mountains, with tradition, with hospitalities.
“We are not doing that for France.
“The Games are not there for a company, or for a country or for a continent – they are there for the world. They are there for all of us for billions of inhabitant on this planet, that’s what the Games are about.”
Beigbeder explained that President Nicolas Sarkozy, despite his absence from Durban, still strongly supports the bid as he has from the beginning. In his place, Prime Minister Fran
