Prague - Overcoming the crucial hurdle of convincing the government to give its tacit support last week, the group behind the Czech capital´s bid for the 2016 Olympic Games submitted the questionnaire to the International Olympic Committee on Monday afternoon. The battle for the Olympics has thus begun.
Prague has six competitors in the race: Baku, Doha, Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
The shortlisted cities for the candidacy are to be announced this summer. The winner will be known in October 2009.
READ MORE: Olympic Games in Prague? Only if it can beat Chicago
"The International Olympic Committee staff reviewed the questionnaire and found no discrepancies. At this moment we have become an official bidder," said Karel Tejkal from the organizers´ company called Praha olympijská (Prague Olympic) in an interview for Aktuálně.cz.
No TV, please
The Praha olympijská staff member delivered the 50-page application in person to Lausanne, Switzerland.
"One of the bidding teams - excuse me for not saying which one - had its own TV crew accompanying them. The Olympic Committee did not like it, though. It was really only about submitting all the documentation necessary. Bringing TV over was not a good idea," Tejkal commented on the process.
The city of Prague had to answer 25 questions in English and French.
The questionnaire chapters
- Motivation, concept and legacy of the Olympic games
- Political support
- Finances
- Venues
- Accommodation
- Transporttation and security issues
- General conditions, public support and experience
"The presentation of the answers was to be as simple as possible, since the IOC is interested in the facts, not in the city's presentation," added Tejkal.
Only just last week it was still not clear whether Prague is going to submit the questionnaire with all the government guarantees that are required for the bid.
In the end, Civic Democrat-led coalition government of the Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek gave its guarantees despite the apparent lack of support from both the Christian Democrats and some of the Green Party members.
READ MORE: Guarantees granted. Czech govt OKs Prague Olympics
What happens next:
January June 2008 - Reviewing the bidders´ applications by the International Olympic Committee
June 2008 Short-listing the candidates for the 31st Olympic games by the IOC executive committee
February 2009 Deadline for submitting questionnaire of the short-listed candidates
September 2009 IOC is to publish their evaluation report
October 2009 The winner of the 2016 Olympics bid is to be announced at the 121st IOC election meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark
