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CNN Live At Daybreak

Torontonians Await Word If They Will Host 2008 Olympics

Aired July 13, 2001 - 08:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Going for the Games in 2008. We should find out in just a couple of hours. Five cities anxiously await the announcement. It is scheduled sometime after 10:00 A.M. Eastern.

Last hour, we were live in the city seen as the leading contender, Beijing.

This hour, we're going to go to CNN's Bill Delaney in Toronto. We've got people around the world standing by to go live.

But Bill, Toronto -- are its chances getting any better?

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Carol, Torontonians have a very good sense, as we near the zero hour here, that they just may pull this out. Sure, the odds are against them. The Las Vegas betting line is 3-1 against Toronto. But in fact, Toronto officials rather like being in that position. They point out that five of the last six Olympic choices were underdogs.

What Toronto officials are telling us is they think if the elimination rounds in Moscow go to a third round, that's very much in their favor. What they're hoping to do if it goes that long is start to peel off votes from Paris -- votes from Paris that then slide over to Toronto -- and that they pull this out at the last moment.

They feel like their city is the risk-free choice, as they say again and again. Sophisticated technological and communications infrastructure are here and an Olympic venue they say is already 70 percent built as part of a waterfront renovation plan.

So Toronto officials, yes, they are underdogs, but people here in the streets -- and the streets are starting to get a little more crowded -- we're not seeing anywhere near the 10,000 or so that are being predicted, but here in downtown Toronto we're seeing lots of people starting to mill around.

People here in Toronto -- Torontonians -- feel like they've got certainly as good a chance as anybody besides China. They think they are the next choice, after China, and they are fairly optimistic -- Carol.

LIN: Well, it looks like a lot of Torontonians are gathering behind you over there at Union Station. What's going on? It looks like they're setting up a stage. DELANEY: Well, yes, they're setting up a stage right behind me here, where there will be large video screens all the way down Front Street here. Crowds, again as I said, predicted to be as high as even 15,000. But so far, a relatively small crowd, just a couple of thousand, at this point.

What they're doing, Carol, is they are serving pancakes. Down the street, some there are some 14,000 pancakes available. They also tell us they've got about 8,000 bottles of water and 4,000 cups of that all-important coffee to get this all started. And you can probably hear some bands starting to rehearse here. It's going to get quite noisy.

So, yes, it's a very festive atmosphere here, a very beautiful Toronto morning, and a pretty good sense that they may yet pull this out, here in Toronto.

LIN: Well, free food always brings out a good crowd. We know that in the newsroom.

Bill, the Toronto mayor has been in the news during this process. It seems that some people were saying that he might have hurt Toronto's chances by some public controversial remarks that he made about Africa. Can you tell us that story real quick?

DELANEY: Well, that's right, Carol. This is very much the shadow on all this. Several weeks ago, Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman compared Africans to cannibals before a trip to Africa, remarks he said jokingly, but, of course, very offensive, to many people. He has apologized, specifically to Africans, for weeks now, including a meeting with an African delegation in Moscow. But even last night in Toronto's last bid presentation, an African delegate raised the issue, said it offended his sense of human rights, and no less a personage than the Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, at that presentation, had to defend Canada's record on human rights and relations with Africans and black people.

I should point out that here in Toronto, this is a very, very multiethnic city, a very multiracial city. Fifty-two percent of the 2.5 million people here in Toronto are immigrants. So it's a very multiethnic city -- an unfortunate remark by Mayor Mel Lastman. We'll see whether it hurts them. Many fear it may hurt them, in a tight race for the 2008 site.

LIN: We shall see. All right, Bill. I didn't mean to delay you in getting some breakfast there. You have a great day. I know you will be standing by for complete live coverage throughout the day, here on CNN.

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