Hatoyama Headed to Copenhagen for IOC Vote

Prime Minister Hatoyama is headed to Copenhagen today, to join the leaders of the other three nations in the running to host the 2016 Olympic Games. Tokyo is vying for the chance to host the games along with Chicago, Rio and Madrid. Tokyo last hosted the games in 1964, and Japan has since hosted two Winter Games, in Sapporo (1972) and Nagano (1998). They claim to have a compact bid, with strong financial backing, and the support of a majority of Japanese people, and Tokyo aims to focus on the athletes and the environment in their bid.

The vote is scheduled for around 6:30PM Copenhagen time tomorrow (about 1:30AM Saturday morning in Tokyo), and voting is expected to be tight. London won the right to host the 2012 Games by 4 votes, and it is believed that the vote could be just as close this time, given the strength of the four candidate cities. The IOC members vote by secret ballot until a city receives a majority, with the candidate with the least votes being eliminated after each round. There are 106 members, but members from countries that are still in the running are not eligible to vote. There are 45 votes from European countries, 23 from Asia, 15 from Africa, 13 from North America, 5 from South America and 4 from Oceania. Each city is due to make 45 minute presentations beginning at around 9AM, and the voting takes place later in the afternoon.

As the voting has gotten closer, each of the city’s have ramped up their rhetoric, and all are attempting to take advantage of whatever star power they can muster. The United States were already sending the new First Lady and Oprah to present for their home city of Chicago, but President Obama has also decided to attend. Some speculate that this means that Chicago already have the bid in the bag, since Obama would take a hit politically for going all that way only to return home empty handed – especially in the midst of many domestic and foreign policy pressures. The same could be said of Hatoyama, who is still in the midst of building his fledgling government. Although media pressure on Hatoyama would likely be much less than that on Obama if he comes home without the games…

All of the bidding cities this time are considered to have very strong bids. There is no clear front-runner, although it is believed that the presence of Obama could sway some votes in the final analysis.

Amongst all the rhetoric that is normal between competing cities, Tokyo governor Ishihara Shintaro made one of the more bizarre statements yesterday (as he does), claiming that “It could be that the 2016 Games are the last Olympics in the history of mankind. Global warming is getting worse. We have to come up with measures without which Olympic Games could not last long”. Wow. So we had better turn back global warming, or by 2020 man will no longer be able to compete in major international sporting events….

Summary of Tokyo’s Bid

Schedule of Events at Copenhagen