Swiss face embarrassing withdrawal from 2010 race
Adrian Warner
Switzerland, the home of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is poised to take the embarrassing step of pulling out of the race to stage the 2010 Winter Olympics after voters rejected the idea of paying for them.
Just weeks after the Swiss capital of Berne was chosen with Canada's Vancouver, Austria's Salzburg and South Korea's Pyeong Chang to be on the final shortlist of candidates for the Games, Berne voters rejected by more than three to one a call by organisers for cash for the Games in a referendum on Sunday.
The IOC's vote on 2010, due to be taken in Prague next July, now looks likely to be a simple showdown between Vancouver and Salzburg. The Canadian city is regarded as the favourite, while Pyeong Chang is a rank outsider.
The IOC would not comment on the referendum late on Sunday as it waited for official word from Berne on whether the Swiss capital would ditch its bid.
A final decision by Berne's organising committee will be made on Friday. But bid officials made it clear that a withdrawal was on the cards.
"We are disappointed, we are a bit sad," said bid chief Martin Hodler.
The only small piece of comfort for bid officials is that they have not yet paid the $500,000 they owe the IOC to be part of the final selection process.
Olympic sources said Berne was unlikely to be asked for the cash which is used to cover IOC visits to the city and expert advice in the final part of the bidding process.
The Swiss city's bid has fallen apart in a matter of weeks.
In an IOC document published last month on the eight original venues in the 2010 race, Berne's bid received a solid report in terms of government and public support.
It said 67 percent of people had expressed their support for Switzerland being a candidate for the Games in a poll organised in the city and in the cantons with Olympic venues. Another MORI poll in Berne had shown 47 percent support, it said.
But, under Switzerland's form of direct democracy, a 15-million-Swiss-franc ($10.1-million) cash call for an Olympic stadium and authorisation for 7.5 million francs to prepare for the Games had to be approved by voters.
Both calls were rejected in a total vote of around 107,000 people with 77.6 percent against the stadium cash and 78.5 percent against the preparations money.
STRONG LINKS
It is unusual for a bidder to drop out as the selection process enters its crucial phase. A team of experts was due to visit the four candidates in February and March before writing a report on their bids ahead of the vote at Prague's IOC session.
It is particularly embarrassing for Switzerland since the country has strong links with the IOC.
The IOC is based in the Swiss town of Lausanne on the banks of Lake Geneva where the Olympic museum is also housed. Many of the IOC's staff are Swiss.
The country has often boasted key figures at the highest level of the IOC including former Alpine skiing chief Marc Hodler, who has been responsible for coordinating successful Winter Games in the past.
Switzerland has a long tradition for winter sports and sent a team to the first Winter Games in 1924 before St Moritz hosted the second Winter Olympics four years later.
Switzerland's Sion launched a strong bid to host the 2006 Winter Games and was considered by some as the frontrunner for much of the campaign. But it lost out to the Italian city of Turin in the final vote in Seoul in 1999.
Berne already had a lot of work to do to catch up with the favourites Vancouver and Salzburg. Now, without public backing, the Swiss have no chance of winning.
Swiss hostility to holding the Games has grown as a result of cost overruns at Switzerland's 2002 Expo national exhibition.
The four venues which were eliminated from the race by the IOC in August were China's Harbin, Spain's Jaca, Sarajevo, the host of the 1984 Games, and the principality of Andorra.
