TORONTO, 25 May — Over 200 sports journalists from around the world gathered here for their annual meeting with Toronto Olympic bidders hoping their presence will help boost the city’s chances of hosting the Summer Games in 2008.
“This is a perfect opportunity for us to highlight ourselves as sporting city, both from a professional and amateaur standpoint,” said Mark Arsenault spokesman for the TO-Bid Committee on Thursday as the journalists prepared for the preliminary session of the annual congress of the Association Internationale de la Press Sportive (AIPS).
Among the journalists are representatives from Agence France Presse (AFP), the BBC, as well reporters from Cuba to Finland to Russia, Africa to Asia.
During this week’s congress at Royal York Hotel, the visiting journalists from 86 countries will get the opportunity to see the booths from all five cities gunning for the 2008 Games, but Toronto will have the biggest chance to show off.
Several voting International Olympic Committee members are also in town to attend the AIPS congress.
Prominent among them are Anita de Frantz of the US, Jean Claude Killy of France and Irena Szewinska of Poland. Several journalists were shown round the facilities Toronto is offering for the 2008 Olympics.
Some reporters opined that though Beijing is having an edge over other front-runners, Toronto is the No. 1 contender. South Korean IOC member Kim Un-yong last week said in Switzerland: “It appeared to be two-horse race between Beijing with political advantage, and Toronto, with the best technical bid.” Montreal-based Canadian sports official Dick Pound, one of the IOC presidential candidates was to speak at a lunch being hosted here Thursday afternoon in honor of the AIPS delegates.
Meanwhile, the heads of the Paris and Toronto Olympic Bid Committees attended a sports media reception at the famous CN Tower here last night.
