Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo fight to host 2020 Olympics

Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo fight to host 2020 Olympics Follow @merinews

05 July, 2013

The fight for hosting the 2020 Olympics is getting more attractive with every passing phase among the three strong contenders - Madrid (Spain), Istanbul (Turkey) and Tokyo (Japan). But, in a presentation made before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) members in Lausanne, Spain's presentation has turned out to be the best.

However, Spain was least impressive when these three teams gave a presentation in St. Petersburg. This had raised doubts about their interest, but at Lausanne, they showed that they are strong contenders. What might edge Spain closer to 2020 Olympics is their already established infrastructure.

Masata Mizuno, Tokyo 2020 chief executive said in this AFP video, “We are more passionate than ever to invite the games of 2020. We have learned from the last bid a whole lot. Well, we kept the best and improved the rest.”

Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose, London Olympics silver medal-winning fencer Yuki Ota and multilingual newscaster Christel Takigawa were part of the six-member presentation committee, reported The Japan Times. It was in 1964 that Japan hosted the Olympic Games.

Ali Babacan, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs said, "Turkey is a country, which is improving its democracy continuously. There's a huge evolution that we're going through, for better practices of freedoms and rule of law in our country. Our democracy has been upgraded again and again throughout the last 10 years especially within our European Union accession process."

Voting for hosting the 2020 Olympics will take place on September 7, 2013 in Buenos Aires. It would not be fair to say that one city is favourite over the other at the moment, as all these countries have put their best feet forward to host the championship.