I am really suprised by these nominations, I have one question:
What about Sarajevo?
I know that they were one of the finalist for the 2010 olympic games, which were awarded to Vancouver, but why didn't they try again? Does anybody remember that gala that was hosted in 2004, in Zetra arena in Sarajevo to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1984 olympic games? All of the top European skaters particpated: Stephane Lambiel, Brian Joubert, Evgeni Plushenko, Julia, S, T&M, and many others including Katrina Witt who skated her gala program from the 1984 games. From my understanding, this was supposed to be somesort of test drive to see if Zetra could host another event, 20 years after the fact. Speedy said in the press confrence that the event went very well and that Sarajevo could be asked to host future competitions. But this is the important part: When Speedy was asked if Sarajevo would possibly host another olympic games he said "no comment but it was very possible in the future"
So why not nominate Sarajevo?
Does anybody remember that Kazakastan was booed at the opening ceremonies of the 2002 SLC games? They are not 'big' competitors at the winter games, and another thing that area is not safe to host an olympic games.
Who nominated them?
Russia, Austria, I could see
I was going to say Zurich Switzerland but it seems they already withdrew their bid
-not all that clear why though...
Gernoble France: now THAT is a good idea, why aren't they nominated? Wasn't London just choosen over Paris for the 2012 games, so why don't they go for the 2014 winter games. They could easily win out of these cities.
I understand that the Olympic commitee would like the games to be held somewhere in Eastern Europe b/c the games have not been held there in a while but...I would not have picked any of these places to host the olympic games.
I think the problem is that they are not choosing cities that people could relate to or have some form of connection with. That maybe why Turin is not sellling out or drawing as much attention as lets Cortina would have drawn. The Summer games choose big cities that everyone has heard of and can relate something to personally, historically, nationally, anything. But the winter games commitee just seems to choose small cities that almost no one has heard of and that have no connection to the olympics at all. What they need to do to choose somewhere that will draw people in, give them another reason to watch. Sarajevo strikes at the heart of what the winter olympic games are and what they once stood for. A time when skating was pure, judging was fair, nobody was mouthing off to the media, and the games were truly something to remember. It was been over 22 years since Sarajevo and yet we still remember them as one of the greatest games.
It is time for the games to go home or someplace where they still mean something: fight the bid SARAJEVO 2014!