DELHI 2010: Indian Olympic bid not dead in water, says Rogge
Delhi 2010Post a commentPosted: Friday 24th September 2010 | 18:20
INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge insists India’s quest to host a future Olympics is not dead in the water despite Delhi’s shambolic Commonwealth Games preparations.
DIPLOMATIC: IOC president Jacque Rogge insists Delhi must be given the chance to turn things around (Getty Images)
Rogge believes that despite a tidal wave of criticism heading the way of the Delhi 2010 organisers, the Games could yet be a success and cited Athens 2004 as an example of the impact last-ditch efforts can have.
The Delhi Commonwealth Games, which get underway in nine days, were supposed to be India’s big coming-out party - an exercise in demonstrating their economic strength and banish stereotypes of corruption and shoddy workmanship.
This week - in which the athletes’ village has been exposed as ‘squalid, filthy and unfit for human habitation’ - has done nothing but reinforce those stigmatisms and India’s intended bid for the 2020 Olympics appears to be lying prostrate on the bottom of the River Yamuna.
Rogge, however, is adamant that is not the case.
“I think I can hardly make a judgment before the games have even started,” Rogge told the Associated Press.
"Let’s give them the chance to prove they can stage good Games. It would be with a last-ditch effort and it probably would be costly, but let’s hope they can fulfil that.
“Hopefully the Indians can pull out a last-ditch effort like the Greeks have done,” he said.
It’s a growing trend among major sports administrators to award large-scale events to developing nations.
The market opportunities for sponsors are far greater than in the saturated West and there’s nothing better to show you’re part of the economic elite than a World Cup or an Olympics.
The South Africa World Cup widely regarded as a success and the Olympics will break into South America for the first time in 2016 with an African Games potentially around the corner.
The Middle East has the economic might to host a major event and Qatar would be the best to get the nod - but Delhi are seemingly proving how things can go wrong.
Rogge however, has warned against jumping the gun.
“It’s far too premature to discuss this,” Rogge added. "This is something that has to be seen by the Indians themselves. There is no doubt they will make an analysis of the games. They will have to see if their original intentions can be kept or not.
"It’s difficult to have a view before the Games have started. There is always a difference between the reality and the anticipation and perception. We had doomsday scenarios in Athens, and these were absolutely very good games.
“The Greeks were able to pull out a very good effort. They were very, very good games at the last moment, so this could happen in Delhi.”