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American Morning

IOC to Vote on 2008 Olympic Games Host

Aired July 13, 2001 - 09:10   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.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: This is the make or break day for cities hoping to host the 2008 Olympic Summer Games. In less than one hour's time the International Olympic Committee will name the winner. The five cities competing, as you've been hearing this week, are Beijing, Paris, Toronto, Istanbul and Osaka. And we are counting down with them to the big announcement.

We have live coverage around the world now. CNN's Jill Dougherty live in Moscow where the decision will be announced. Our senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy live in Beijing, which is a top contender. And CNN's Bill Delaney live in Toronto. Good morning all.

Let's go first to Jill.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Stephen, here it's really been a pitch, the, let's say, the sprint to the finish line for these five cities that do want to host the 2008 Olympics. The last one just wrapped up. That is Istanbul. Istanbul and Osaka really are not considered to be contenders in this. Paris, considered a contender, also made its pitch. But the two really main ones are Beijing and Toronto.

Beijing made a very sophisticated pitch, talking about culture, history, the numbers of people, one fifth of the world's population living in Beijing. They also say that the infrastructure that they will create will be more than enough to put these games on.

Toronto also making a big pitch, bringing in everything up, including a Native American chief to make their point that they want the Olympics.

So what's going to happen is they have wrapped this up and in just a little less than an hour the voting is going to take place. Over 100 members of the IOC will cast their votes. There could potentially be four rounds of voting and then eventually they eliminate everybody and we will know the winner.

So as soon as we know that, of course, Stephen, we'll be back to you.

FRAZIER: As you know, Jill, with each round one of the cities that's a candidate is eliminated. But the one that's not expected to be eliminated early, Beijing. We're going to go there now. It's the city many observers say has the best chance of winning the Olympic bid.

CNN senior Asian correspondent Mike Chinoy is there and he joins us now live -- Mike?

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Stephen.

Well, I'm front of Beijing's Millennium Monument, where several thousand young people have gathered to watch a cultural program, the program is also being broadcast by Beijing Television all around the capital.

If China likes to cast itself as the, as a thousands of year old civilization and Beijing as the capital of this ancient civilization, the display here, which, incidentally, is the only official mass gathering in Beijing this evening, is designed, in part, to emphasize that China's younger generation is deeply behind this bid and that China is changing. Rock and roll music, pop singing, the kind you see here was illegal in this country not so long ago. Many of the proponents of China's bid say that winning the Olympics would play a major role in helping to open Beijing up more to the rest of the world and also by allowing greater international scrutiny of the country might have some positive impact on China's human rights record.

Beijing's bad performance in the area of human rights has been, of course, the big liability and many critics have argued that giving the Olympics to Beijing would be simply condoning repression and therefore Beijing shouldn't get the games.

But enthusiasm here is really very, very high. There's no doubt that popular sentiment in this country is more intense, more strongly in favor of the Olympics than anywhere else. The Chinese really feel this will be a vindication of China's greatness as a nation, with China assuming its rightful role on the international stage if Beijing wins this bid -- Stephen?

FRAZIER: Mike, nice job talking over all that excitement there. Thanks for that insights and that scene center.

Now to another continent and another contender, CNN's Bill Delaney is live with us in Toronto, Ontario.

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Stephen.

You know, maybe it's something about being an underdog, but you're really starting to feel the excitement and the anticipation in the streets here. Downtown Toronto, Front Street, look at that stage. That's a salsa group. Now, that may seem a bit incongruous in Toronto, but, in fact, this is one of the most multi-ethnic cities on earth. That stage, where all eyes will be focused in just about a half hour or so, a giant video screen atop the stage will send a live transmission of that vote in Moscow.

Now, looking down Front Street, many thousands of Canadians gathered. What drew some of them, pancakes, some 14,000 pancakes served this morning, 8,000 bottles of water, 4,000 cups of coffee as the crowds here really start to swell. We're in front of Union Station here on Front Street in Toronto, which is actually more traveled than the airport is. So we do expect this crowd to swell to at least 10,000 or 15,000.

How are people feeling about their chances? They're feeling real good Toronto feels its the choice after Beijing and they point out that five of the last six Olympic sites have come in as underdogs. So a very good feeling here, a very optimistic feeling about Toronto winning the 2008 Olympics -- back to you, Stephen.

FRAZIER: Bill, I have a question for you if you can hear me over the sounds of that salsa band.

DELANEY: I can hear you, Stephen.

FRAZIER: Great. What we'd like to know is what the feeling was there in Toronto. Is anybody talking these days about what it was like back in the vote for the 1996 Olympic games in which, you know, Toronto lost out very, very closely to the city of Atlanta?

DELANEY: Well, you know, it does come up, but they really feel like, you know, they want to emphasize the positive around here, two successful Olympics here in Montreal and Calgary and their mantra that you year again and again, Stephen, that this is the risk free choice. It's technologically sophisticated. It's got a great communications network. Seventy percent of the Olympic venue already built down on the waterfront, they say. And in that risk free mantra, a not so subtle reference to Canada's political stability as compared to China's political uncertainties -- back to you, Steve.

FRAZIER: Also billed to its commercial stability. These are games that will be played out in the Eastern Time Zone. I'm sure IOC members, mindful of the revenue they could get from television broadcasts into the most populated television markets in the world.

DELANEY: Stephen, that's a heck of an important point, and they do raise that all the time. This is the Eastern Time Zone. Most of the events here would go out live all over the United States, that enormous media market, in great contrast, of course, to Sydney most recently, where so many events were live at 4:00 in the morning or so in a place like New York, but were on tape during prime time in the big media market of North America -- back to you, Stephen.

FRAZIER: Bill Delaney from Toronto. Bill, thanks very much for those insights this morning.

We'd also like to show you some of the pictures in Paris, again, one of the leading contenders for this year's vote. This is the scene in a Paris cathedral where they're hoping that the games might come again to Europe. One of the things that's a strike against Paris is the fact that Athens is currently slated to hold the Summer Games in the year 2004. So that would be two European cities in a row. That's the only thing, though, that mitigates against Paris, which is calling itself a perfect site because of its monuments and the fact that it's such a beautiful city in which all of the Games, except, perhaps, for sailing, could be held right within the city limits. We have been asking for some time now which city you would like to see win the Olympic bid and become the host of the 2008 Summer Games. You can cast your vote on our Web site. That's at cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN. Right now, you can find out which city wins our viewers' votes during the next hour of CNN LIVE THIS MORNING. Here's what the vote is right now. It looks as though Toronto is the popular favorite with our viewers, with 46 percent of the votes, Beijing with 34 percent. We also expect to bring you live coverage of the announcement itself during an hour long special right here on CNN.

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