Winter Olympics: Experience is key for 2010 Games bidders

The three cities hoping to stage the 2010 Winter Games could all organise "very good" Olympics, the International Olympic Committee's evaluation commission said yesterday.

Vancouver, Salzburg and PyeongChang were each visited by commission members for four days earlier this year. The commission gave details of the bids' strengths and weaknesses in yesterday's report, but said it had not ranked the cities in any order.

The commission will make a final report to the IOC session in Prague on 2 July after the final presentations of the three cities. IOC members will then vote to select the host city.

The evaluation commission, listing the 2010 candidate cities in alphabetical order, said PyeongChang's bid had been well prepared, was well supported by the public and drew on South Korea's experience of hosting the 1988 Summer Games and last year's football World Cup. It noted substantial guarantees had been given to support the construction of the necessary infrastructure but saw a "challenge" over accommodation as there were currently not enough hotel rooms.

Salzburg, said the report, had drawn on Austria's extensive experience of organising sports events, including two Winter Olympics.

Vancouver, said the commission, had built on the experience of Canada holding major events such as the 1988 Winter Olympics, the 1994 Commonwealth Games and the 1999 Pan-American Games.

The 2006 Winter Games are to be hosted by the Italian city of Turin. Salt Lake City staged the previous Games in 2002.