Munich 'ideal for Winter Olympics', says bid chief

The French alpine town of Annecy can win the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympics in what has become an increasingly tight race, their bid president Charles Beigbeder told AFP.The 47-year-old businessman - who took on his role in January after his predecessor Edgar Grospiron resigned in December - said the impression it was a two-horse race between Korean candidate Pyeongchang and German rivals Munich was false.

Memories of Germany's successful hosting of the 2006 World Cup will have more of an effect on International Olympic Committee members in the vote on who hosts the 2018 Winter Games than the terror attack which left 11 Israeli athletes dead at the 1972 Munich Olympics, ice skating legend Katarina Witt told AFP.The 44-year-old chair of Munich's bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics said the successful hosting of the World Cup Germany had left an extremely positive impression.

German President Christian Wulff said here on Tuesday that if Munich win the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympics that it would be a real present for the country.The 52-year-old arrived here to lobby the 90+ International Olympic Committee (IOC) members - their numbers have been reduced from over 100 as six at least are not coming and another eight will not vote for various reasons - on the eve of the vote which will decide their fate.

German city Munich was praised for the environmental aspect of its bid to host the 2018 Winter Games when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Evaluation Commission's report was published on Tuesday.Munich is bidding to become the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Olympics, having hosted the 1972 Summer Games which was overshadowed by the Palestinian terror attack which left 11 Israeli athletes and a German police officer dead.

Munich winning the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympics would be like winning a third Olympic gold medal, ice skating legend Katarina Witt said Friday.The 44-year-old - who became the first woman ice skater since Norway's Sonja Henie (1928, 1932, 1936) to win successive Olympic golds while competing for East Germany in 1984 and 1988 - is chair of the Munich bid which is attempting to bring the Winter Games to Germany for the first time in almost 80 years.Garmsich-Partenkirchen last hosted the Winter Games in 1936.

Munich's bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics has received a boost after a new sponsor was unveiled, raising the budget from 25 to 33 million euros.Lotto Bayern, which runs Bavaria's state lottery, have joined Adidas, Lufthansa and car manufacturer BMW as partner sponsors for Munich's bid.Munich's application will see the snow events held at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the German Alps.The Bavarian city, which hosted the Summer Olympics in 1972, is in competition with Annecy (France) and Pyeongchang (South Korea) for the right to host the Winter Olympics.

Full stadiums and a huge sponsorship potential would be just two of the plus points should Munich host the 2018 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) evaluation commission heard Thursday.The 14-strong delegation is on a four-day visit to Munich as part of its tour of all three cities bidding to host the 2018 winter games.German chancellor Angela Merkel was set to address the IOC inspectors at a state banquet on Thursday evening in Munich.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday gave South Korea's Pyeongchang and Munich in Germany the edge over France's Annecy in the race to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.All three were confirmed as candidates by the IOC's executive board and praised in an initial evaluation report, but Annecy was asked to review its plans for dispersed sports venues by the next stage of the bidding process."The expert group... decided that the cities of Munich and Pyeongchang should be retained without reservation," Felli told journalists.