Apr 17, 2009 6:06 pm US/Central
Tokyo Shines During Olympic Venues Tour
TOKYO, Japan (CBS) ―
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Nawal El Moutawakel and other international Olympic evaluators have received a warm welcome in Tokyo, which is bidding for the 2016 games.
CBS
Chicago is facing stiff competition as it fights to get the Summer Olympics in 2016.
CBS 2's Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports on the strength of Tokyo's bid for the games.
Chicago took a hit Friday. Tokyo's venue tour was a real hit -- a true tour de force. A hint of things to come was the send-off by hotel employees lined up outside when the International Olympic Committee's evaluation commission began its tour.
Waving back from the bus, the commission chair and other members were clearly enjoying the attention. And it was just the beginning.
They posed for pictures and were greeted by children at every stop.
There were athletic demonstrations during
Chicago's tour, but Japan's played to packed houses.
In sharp contrast to the United Center, which was virtually empty, the spirit was infectious. At one point, Chairwoman Nawal El Moutawakel, was prompted to demonstrate her soccer skills to the delight of youngsters watching.
At the site where the Olympic stadium would be built -- now an empty field at the edge of Tokyo Bay -- a special viewing stand had been built and the commission was given special viewing glasses which gave them a sense of the stadium being built before their very eyes.
While commission members in Chicago walked through McCormick Place, which would house the press center and various Olympic events, in Tokyo they were given personalized scooters to ride around Tokyo's so-called "big sight."
And when they visited the stadium built for the Tokyo's 1964 summer games, the torch atop structure burned, as it did 45 years ago.
The visit to 33 of the 34 sites in the Tokyo metropolitan area went off without a hitch, despite it being a work day for the 16 million people who descend on the city every day.
And unlike Chicago's tour, where we got the barest glimpse of the Commission visiting virtually empty fields and arenas, Tokyo made video of its well-orchestrated reception available to the world – and perhaps more important, to the 100 IOC voters who'll make the decision.
A small group of protesters greeted the evaluation team. The team came face-to-face with the protesters, who chanted "Tokyo doesn't need the Olympics," at the site for the main Olympic stadium.
Tokyo is competing with Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid. The IOC will vote on the host city in Copenhagen on Oct. 2.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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