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Beijing a front-runner in Olympic race
MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Chinese officials are completing preparations for their final do-or-die pitch to International Olympic Committee members ahead of Friday's election of the 2008 host city. The IOC is meeting in Moscow this week for two landmark announcements -- the first the election of the 2008 host and the second the replacement of outgoing President Juan Antonio Samaranch.
Beijing, a runner up to Sydney for the 2000 games, is considered the firm favorite in the field of five that includes Paris, Toronto, Osaka and Istanbul. The Beijing Olympic Committee delegation arrived in Moscow Sunday, confident that lessons from their failed 2000 bid had been learned. But both Toronto and Paris are also certain their city will get the nod. Paris, like Toronto and Beijing, received a glowing report from the IOC evaluation committee that visited each Olympic host bid city, describing the French capital as presenting the Olympics with an "attractive option."
The city has most of the sporting infrastructure required to stage the Games already built, with just a few planning elements of the athlete's village yet to be resolved. "You have to consider one thing," Claude Bebear, the Paris 2008 bid president, told CNN. "What is the best offer for the athletes. Second, what is the best offer for the visiting people. And third, what is the best offer for the people watching their TV." Toronto gaffe
Bid officials from Toronto admitted they were still dealing with questions resulting from controversial comments from the city's mayor last month. Before embarking on a trip to woo support from IOC members in Africa, mayor Mel Lastman said he was scared of snakes and was worried he would end up in a pot surrounded by dancing natives. He has apologized for his words, but observers believe the gaffe may have ruined Toronto's chances. Human rights an issueBut Beijing's favoritism, if anything, has firmed. This despite attention being drawn to China's human rights record -- something that dogged Beijing's failed bid in 1993. The IOC has consistently said the Olympics was above politics and China's human rights record was an internal matter. Many human rights groups say the international community must keep the pressure on China to improve its record regardless of whether the Chinese capital is awarded the Games.
"Human Rights Watch doesn't take a position about whether or not the Chinese government should get the Olympics," the HRW's Minky Warden told CNN from New York. "The decision will be made in China, and there is a window of opportunity to achieve some real human rights progress before that decision is made." "But also, after the decision is made and if China gets the Olympics, the international community has a real responsibility to keep the spotlight on China's human rights record and to make sure that in the run-up to the Olympics and during the Olympics [that] political rights, freedom of expression and human rights are expected," she said. When asked about the criticism aimed at Beijing's bid over the issue of human rights, Beijing Olympic committee member Dr. David Chu said that "by hosting the 2008 Olympic Games, I believe the world will have a better understanding of China and her people." "Having the 2008 Olympics in China is the chance to create a cultural understanding. (If Beijing loses) both China and the world will lost the chance to meet on a common ground," he told CNN.
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