Lausanne (pps) On October 2, the 121st Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will award the 2016 Olympic Summer Games. In Copenhagen, the following bids will be up for election (alphabetical order): Chicago (USA), Madrid (Spain), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Tokyo (Japan).
After inspecting the cities in April and May, the Evaluation Commission delivered its 90 page final report stating that all four bids are of „very high quality“. The commission with its 13 members is chaired by Nawal El Moutawakel from Morocco, 1984 Olympic champion in Hurdles.
The report only evaluates “technical aspects”; its influence on the vote by the IOC members is likely to be outweighed by sport political considerations. With Turin (winter 2006), Beijing (summer 2008) and Sochi (winter 2014), the last three elections were won by bids that had not received the best marks in the evaluation reports.
In the voting process, the majority of cast votes is required. After each round, the bid with the lowest number of votes is eliminated. The IOC currently has 106 full members. Members from bidding countries are not allowed to vote, however, as long as their bids are still on. As a tradition, IOC President Jacques Rogge (Belgium) abstains from voting.
