Olympics: ‘Madrid ready for 2020 Games’

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says, the city deserves the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games.

MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy opened the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) evaluation team’s visit to Madrid yesterday by claiming the city deserves the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games.

The Spanish capital was unsuccessful in its attempt to host the 2012 and 2016 games, but that could now play to its advantage with 28 of its proposed 35 venues already constructed.

“Madrid has a great advantage,” Rajoy told a press conference. “Of the sports facilities needed to hold an Olympic Games, 80 percent are already built. We are ready and prepared to host an event of the importance of the Olympic Games and we would do so very proudly.”

Tokyo and Istanbul are the other cities in the running for the 2020 Games with a final decision on the host city to be taken in Buenos Aires on September 7.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2013.