Apr 15, 2009 5:49 pm US/Central
All Eyes On Tokyo In Quest For 2016 Olympic Games
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Tokyo's 2016 Games bid team.
CBS
Two weeks ago, Chicago got its shot at impressing international Olympic officials. Now all eyes are on Tokyo in its bid for the 2016 Games.
But as Tokyo gets ready for its first formal session, CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports much of the pre-visit hype was about how well Chicago's bid team did.
No one expects Tokyo to stumble either. All it has to prove is it can deliver on the promises made in its bid book.
With a polite greeting for reporters, the evaluation commission chair began a visit to Tokyo, nearly identical to her stay here two weeks ago. Nawal El Moutawakel is celebrating the silver anniversary of her historic 400 meter hurdles victory, becoming the first Muslim woman to win Olympic gold. Now she may be instrumental in awarding the gold to one of the four finalists in the race for 2016.
The media coverage in Tokyo, as in Chicago, is intense. It showed flags flying, heralding Tokyo's bid to welcome the world in 2016, this week greeting the evaluation committee with a white glove, red carpet welcome.
In the next few days it was present a games plan similar to Chicago's, with most venues within 5 miles of the Olympic village. It also includes one Olympic complex on reclaimed land in the middle of Tokyo's harbor.
The effort is led by Tokyo's bid CEO, Dr. Ichiro Kono, who CBS 2 met in Denver last month, touting Tokyo's financial guarantee.
In Tokyo Kono called this "the most important week of my life."
Only one of the four bidders can win, but a new study done in California and just released indicates losing isn't all that bad. Just bidding for the games boosted nations' exports by 30 percent, as a result of their increased visibility.
Many of the winning bidders, on the other hand, have second thoughts about the games because they often cost more than they thought.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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