Bidding Heating Up For the 2006 Games

Organizers from Klagenfurt, Austria, who were bidding for the 2006 Winter Olympics prepared last February to welcome IOC members for a tour of their facilities.

Then came the word from IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Because of the Olympic bidding scandal and the reforms that followed, there would be no visit, no chance to wine and dine the officials.

Now if that were the case for all six bidding cities, it would be fine. However, Sion, Switzerland, one of the six, has been through the bid process twice and IOC officials have already toured that site.

Which leaves Klagenfurt and the other 2006 bid cities--Turin, Italy; Helsinki, Finland; Zakopane, Poland; and Popred-Tatry, Slovakia--at a disadvantage.

The issue will be settled June 18 in Seoul, where the cities will have one hour to make their final presentations. The six cities will be reduced to two finalists and then the International Olympic Committee will pick the winner.

Klagenfurt hopes Sion’s previous hospitality is not the deciding factor.

“The mountain is not level,” said Franz Klammer, the 1976 Olympic downhill champion who heads the Austrian presentation team. “The change is a disadvantage. The visit would have helped. We have a lot to show. They cannot see us. That’s the facts. Now we are working on the final presentation. This gives us a new challenge.”

Klagenfurt’s bid is actually a unique three-country proposal, including sites in Italy and Slovenia. On the surface that sounds somewhat inconvenient until Klammer displays a map of the region. It is not unlike the Four Corners area in the western United States where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado touch each other.

“The downhill and the ski jump would be separated by about 10 miles,” he said. “They are close by, on well-developed roads. From Vail to Beaver Creek in Utah is farther. Albertville was more spread out.”

And, he said, the three-country bid brings with it a message of peace. “Seventy years ago, we were at war with the other two. Breaking barriers is what sports should be all about.”

The wait for a final decision in Seoul will weigh on Klammer’s nerves. It will not, however, be anything new for him.

Try waiting to ski in the Olympic downhill. Try waiting for 14 other skiers to go first.

That was Klammer’s situation at the Innsbruck Games. A crowd of 60,000 lined the mountain for the downhill, crown jewel of the Alpine events. Throughout practice, Klammer was first down the course, an acknowledgment of his status as the No. 1 skier in the world. Then came the draw for the race and No. 1 suddenly became No. 15.

The turn of events infuriated the great Austrian skier. The track is smooth at the start of a race, beat-up at the end. For the last skier of the day, the task would be more complicated.

“You sit and you wait,” Klammer said. “The waiting was harrowing. I was No. 1 in the world, but now everything was not in my favor. For two years, I had won all the races. Now this. You put yourself in position to win and then you have to take the chance.

“It was me and the mountain. You are not racing the others. You are racing the mountain.”

Klammer had the reputation of a daredevil. At Innsbruck, he had to be one.

“I knew I didn’t want to be second,” he said. “I was just going to go for it. My mind was only on victory. The worst thing is if you don’t win, the next day looking in the mirror and knowing you were a coward. I wanted to avoid that from happening. In my mind I said, ‘I am going to win! I can do it! I will do it!’ ”

And then he did it.

It was not easy.

“I remember it all,” Klammer said. “The first right-hand turn, all week in training there was no rut. Now, there was a rut. I didn’t see it.”

Klammer nearly lost control. Tapes of the race show him almost out of control, standing on one ski, the other leg high in the air.

Somehow, he hung on, skirting disaster throughout the run. When he reached the bottom of the hill, Klammer had won the race by 33 hundredths of a second. “It was my best turn ever,” he said.

Now he is in another race, one that will be decided in meeting rooms instead of on the side of a mountain.

What if the final vote goes against Klagenfurt?

“If we don’t get it, we will mourn,” Klammer said. “And then we will try again.”