Nov 29, 2007 6:27 pm US/Central
An Architect Of London 2012 Games Visits Chicago
Advice, Warnings From Great Britain For Chicago's Bid
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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London's logo for the 2012 Olympics, unveiled this week, has met with harsh criticism.
CBS
A woman who has played a key role in both winning and planning the 2012 Olympic Games in Britain visited Chicago Thursday. As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, she found Chicago already following part of her blueprint for a winning bid.
"I think to begin with we were ranked last of all the candidate cities and we just doggedly set about getting individual members of the IOC to change their minds," said UK Minister for the Olympics Tessa Jowell.
Mayor Richard M. Daley last year went to London to meet with Tony Blair, the former prime minister who gets most of the credit for that. And just as the collapsible stadium London recently unveiled is remarkably similar to the one Chicago has planned for Washington Park, Chicago's emphasis on youth seems to mimic the winning strategy London adopted.
"What we were able to do in our focus on young people was to say this really matters to us as a city and it really matters," Jowell said.
"The IOC clearly wants to know what are you gonna do for the games but they take great pride in knowing that because of the games have been held in your city you've been able to accomplish X," said Chicago 2016 Operations Manager Doug Arnot.
He says Chicago with all its glitzy animations and grand plans is still searching to refine that "x-factor." Jowell, addressing the Metropolitan Planning Council Thursday warned of rough sledding ahead.
"Hold onto your seats, cause its a white knuckle ride, you never know whats around the corner," Jowell said.
In an interview with CBS 2 after her speech, Jowell did raise a red flag about Olympic finances, saying to achieve the legacy the International Olympic Committee wants, there would have to be significant public funding. And Daley has repeatedly said there'll be no public funds used for the 2016 Games.
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