Paris has Olympic hopes: Ambassador

JAKARTA (JP): French ambassador to Indonesia Gerard Cros said on Monday that Paris stands a fair chance of winning the bid to host the 2008 Olympics because of the city's infrastructure advantages.

"Paris has most of the sporting venues and we only need to construct small additional venues," Cros said during a dinner at his residence.

"Another advantage is that all venues are in or around the city of Paris. Only sailing would be held in La Rochelle, some 300 kilometers southwest of Paris," he said.

Paris's bid organizing committee has proposed construction of several venues in or around Paris' most famous places such as the Eiffel tower and Les Invalides.

Paris is competing against heavy favorite Beijing, Toronto, Osaka and Istanbul to host the 2008 quadrennial event. Paris has previously hosted the 1900 and 1924 Olympics.

Another French cities of Chamonix, Grenoble and Albertville have hosted the Winter Games in 1924, 1968 and 1992 respectively.

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) will announce the 2008 host city during its meeting on July 13 in Moscow.

"The date is very important because it is only one day prior to our national day. Lately, we have had a tradition of celebrating something special around our national day," Cros said.

"We celebrated our victory in the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Cup around our national day. So, we expect that we can also have something to celebrate this year," he said.

Cros emphasized that France has had a special connection with the modern Olympic movement since its establishment.

"We have a special connection to the Olympic movement since it was Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin who revived the Olympic spirit into its modern form.

"I believe the baron did not expect that his efforts would ever reach the current level (of importance)," Cros said.

Cros, however, admitted that Paris also has obstacles in winning the bid.

"Athens will host the 2004 Olympics and if it is in Paris (in 2008), people will think that it is not fair to have the Olympics in Europe twice," he said.

"Furthermore, Beijing lost to Sydney for the 2000 Olympics and I believe that there will be some moral obligation to have Beijing as the next host. I'm sure most Asian countries will back Beijing's bid," he added. (nvn)