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Passing the 2016 Olympic Torch: Madrid

Sep 29, 2009, 3:10 PM UTC

The host city of the 2016 Olympic Games will be announced on Friday, Oct. 2. In an effort to prepare you for the big day in Copenhagen, we’ll take a look at each city this week, leading up to Friday’s announcement. â†µâ†µChicago has Oprah, Obama, Jordan, and the American bluster. Tokyo has one of the better infrastructure plans in recent Olympic history. Rio de Janeiro is, well, Rio de Janeiro. Madrid, by its organizers’ own admission, is the “safe bid.”â†µ

â†µâ†µThe Spanish capital is a long shot, anyway: In 2012, London will host the Summer Games on the Old World immediately before it, and there haven’t been two consecutive Summer Games on one continent since the 1950s. Given that, in the race to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, it’s hard to make a case for Madrid. But I’ll try.â†µ

â†µâ†µBIGGEST ENDORSERS: Of the nationals, former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch is the headliner. And when he’s your ringer, it’s a bad sign. He obviously has the sort of backroom acumen to succeed in the voting, but his wattage is a little lacking. The 92.6% of public support is impressive, certainly, but when all Rafael Nadal is doing is saying “good luck,” I’m betting on Oprah. Below, Fernando Torres looks incredibly awkward in a promotional video. (“Tengo una corazonada” means, essentially, “I’ve got a feeling.” Thank all that you thank in this world that the Black Eyed Peas presumably do not know that that phrase is a tagline of the Madrid bid.) â†µ

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â†µâ†µThe star power comes from Cristiano Ronaldo and Usain Bolt, who, as of earlier this month, apparently support Madrid.â†µ

â†µOBSCURE ENDORSERS: Because Samaranch wasn’t obscure enough, the leader of Madrid’s efforts is a former field hockey player, Mercedes Coghen. Sebastian Coe, she’s not.
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â†µGREATEST CONTRIBUTIONS TO SPORTS: Real Madrid was named the greatest soccer team of the 20th century and their legendary stadium, the Bernabeu, is a focal point of Madrid’s facilities plan. Bullfighting aficionados consider Las Ventas one of the sport’s premier venues. If you can find a standout name on this list of Madrid-born athletes, feel free to add him or her.â†µâ†µ

â†µFOOD THEY'LL WRITE HOME ABOUT: Tapas are a tradition in Spain, so sportswriters who would otherwise complain about press room spreads can just pop outside for bites. Failing that, maybe some cocido madrileño, a savory chickpea-heavy stew, will fill them up.â†µ

â†µâ†µUNVERIFIED FACT LEARNED FROM WIKIPEDIA THAT WILL IN NO WAY HELP THE CITY’S HOPES FOR A BID: “Madrid is twinned with (among other cities): Belgrade, Serbia; Moscow, Russia; Nouakchott, Mauritania; Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Tegucigalpa, Honduras.”” â†µ

â†µâ†µMURDER RATE: 127 in 2008, behind Barcelona and beating out a city given third place because of an “accounting error.” â†µ

â†µâ†µPOTENTIAL LOGO: â†µ

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â†µâ†µNow, I wasn’t privy to the logo planning committee’s meetings, but I can only guess they asked a kindergarten class to help out and gave them markers in the Olympic colors. (The above is also way better than this stylized slogan.)â†µ

â†µâ†µTHE DOWNSIDE: Did I mention that the people in charge of Madrid’s bid are calling it a “safe bid”? Madrid’s also got the makings of a Buffalo-esque bridesmaid system if, as seems likely, they get passed over for the 2016: They narrowly missed in the competition to host the 2012 Games, actually placing first after the first round of voting and getting overtaken by London as candidates were eliminated.â†µ

â†µâ†µBut with a lot of the infrastructure in place and a lot of enthusiasm for even an unlikely bid, Madrid will probably be a contender again in the future.â†µ

â†µâ†µBOTTOM LINE: It’s not happening, but at least we got a hand turkey logo and eleven seconds of a preternaturally awkward Fernando Torres.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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