MADRID — Madrid organizers will welcome the International Olympic Committee’s evaluation team today with high hopes tempered by past experience.
The IOC’s team arrives for the last of its 2016 Games inspection tours after visiting Chicago, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.
IOC chairwoman Nawal el Moutawakel said the evaluation team was “impressed” with each of those, and Madrid bid chief Mercedes Coghen doesn’t expect the Spanish capital’s presentation to change the IOC’s careful vocabulary.
“All four cities have great projects, and I think that seems to be a very smart way of summing it up,” Coghen said.
It’s the second time the IOC is evaluating Madrid, which also bid for the 2012 Games awarded to London, and Coghen believes that familiarity could work in Madrid’s favor.
The team will inspect venues Wednesday and Thursday. Madrid’s government has already committed to the project and has guaranteed to cover any surplus costs to the proposed $5.6 billion budget.
