Bid to win Games ‘race’

Press, 18 December 1985, Page 27

Bid to win Games ‘race’

By

ROBERT MILLWARD,

Associated Press, through NZPA Birmingham Birmingham’s bid to stage the 1992 Olympics may be boosted by a bizarre historical connection with the Games. This industrial, central English city has announced an ambitious £1 billion (?2.56 billion) campaign programme, complete with futuristic superbowl stadium. But in its bid to snatch the final decision from six other candidates next October, Birmingham has unearthed a link with Baron -Pierre Coubertin — founder of the modern Games — through the nearby market town of Much Wenlock. In its publicity campaign aimed at bringing the Games to the city, Birmingham claims to have discovered records of Coubertin’s visit to the Much Wenlock Olympian Games of 1890 — six years before the Frenchman inspired the first modem Olympics. Records show the programme for the Much Wenlock Games included pole leaping, foot races over various distances, bicycle races, and equestrian events. It also had an ancient form of pentathlon involving climbing a 25-metre rope, a running high leap, a running long leap, putting the shot, and a half-mile foot race. Its publicity brochure, “Heart of Gold,” which sets out details of Birmingham’s bid, says Coubertin was made an honorary member of the Much Wenlock Olympian Society, which will

celebrate its centenary next July.

An oak tree planted in Coubertin’s honour still stands, says the brochure, adding that the famous Frenchman regarded Britain as the spiritual home of the modem Olympic movement.

“For it was in St Paul’s Cathedral, London, in 1908, that he was moved to utter what has since become the abiding principle of Olympic endeavour,” says the Birmingham brochure.

“The baron listened to a sermon by Ethelbert Talbot, Bishop of Pennsylvania, and remarked: "The important thing in these Olympiads is less to win than to take part in them’.”

The British Olympic Association put forward Birmingham ahead of London and Manchester as Britain’s official candidate for the 1992 Games — and

the city is convinced it can win the International Olympic Committee vote.

Birmingham has emerged as a leading challenger to the favourite, Barcelona, Spain. The other contenders are Paris, Brisbane, Australia, a Rotterdam-Amster-dam combination, New Delhi and Belgrade. Birmingham claims big advantages over all its rivals, both on costing and facilities for the athletes.

The city’s theme, said a leading organiser, Denis Howell, is “giving the Games back to the athletes.”

Although a 75,000 seater superbowl, a swimming pool, a velodrome and the athletes’ village will have to be built, most of the sports will be staged at existing arenas, said Mr Howell.

Many sports will be held at the nine-hall National Exhibition Centre, which

can cater for 140,000 spectators daily. Equestrian events will be staged at historical Stoneleigh Abbey, home of the world-famous Royal International Horse Show, with a capacity of 100,000. The superbowl and village would be sited next to the 12-year-old N.E.C. to the east of Birmingham, and Mr Howell vowed that competitors will have to walk less than Ikm from the village to most of the arenas.

“We have looked carefully at the other six cities and we are absolutely certain that technically, the Birmingham proposal far outweighs what’s on offer from any of the other cities in terms of ability to hand the Games back to the athletes,” he said. “We don’t see Birmingham as the favourite at the moment. But we do see it as having the best bid. Clearly

Barcelona, with the number of Spanish-speaking delegates on the 1.0. C., is the favourite.”

Likening the 1992 challenge to a horse race, Mr Howell said, “Last July, I felt we were in fourth or fifth place. “We still have two furlongs to go and we have overtaken two or three horses. We can see the winning post and we are confident that we can get there first.”