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Turin Games organizers approve budget
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-19 07:06
TURIN, Italy: A thumbs-up from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and
an approved budget have given organizers of the Winter Games in Turin a welcome
boost just 23 days before the start of the competition.
A runner carries the Olympic torch in a
gondola along the Canal Grande in Venice January 17, 2006. About 10,000
torchbearers will take the flame on an 11,000-km (6,835-mile) trek to 140
cities before the 2006 Winter Olympics in the northern Italian city of
Turin. [Reuters] |
The organizing committee
(TOROC) has had to contend with complaints about a lack of snow and a perceived
lack of public interest as well as with concerns over the financing of the
Games.
"All the venues are ready, the situation has improved greatly since the last
visit by the FIS," said an upbeat Gilbert Felli, IOC Executive Director for the
Olympic Winter Games, after an on-site inspection over the weekend.
Felli made the comments from Sestriere after accusations by the International
Ski Federation about the lack of snow in the main alpine skiing site.
Helmuth Schmalzl, FIS head of safety for the downhills, did a reconnaissance
of the Olympic slopes on January 7 and reported on the lack of snow in the high
part of the men's downhill and the risk of danger in the ski lift area because
of the lack of snow cover.
But Felli, an ex-racer in the Swiss national ski team, retorted: "The start
is fine, the snow cannons have blasted a good snow covering.
"I would say that everything has been sorted out and that (when) this week
Schmalzl goes back and checks the track, I am convinced that he will find
everything in order.
"With less than a month from the start of the Olympic Winter Games, I am very
satisfied.
"There are some small details to define, but the only thing I will need to do
during my next visits to the venues is to congratulate the people in charge for
having done an excellent job."
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