By Matthew Monks
“Two hurdles down and one to go,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg in Manhattan, shortly after the International Olympic Committee narrowed the field to five cities.
“We are flattered. We are humbled and all I can tell them (the committee) is we will do everything we can to further the Olympic movement.”
Paris, London, Moscow and Madrid are the other finalists. The 125-member committee, which met in Switzerland, bumped four cities – Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, Leipzig and Havana – from the race. It will announce the host city on July 6, 2005.
Elated New York City officials are hoping it will be the Big Apple they said during a morning celebration reception Tuesday in Bryant Park.
“Nowhere in the world is there a city as diverse as New York,” said Gov. George Pataki. As the only finalist that has residents from nearly all of the 202 competing countries, New York would give every athlete a hometown crowd, he said.
The governor pledged the state's support for the games, saying it would help fund the new facilities and infrastructure projects proposed by NYC2012, the committee behind the city's bid.
As the proposed location of the Olympic Village, the western Queens waterfront would be the center of the games if they come to New York.
Every venue will be within 20 miles of the village, a row of high-rises across the East River from the United Nations that officials say will offer 4,400 units of affordable housing after the games.
Athletes would be shuttled by rail or ferry to venues scattered throughout the city, many of them in Queens.
The plan calls for erecting a badminton court and velodrome in Long Island City; regulation swimming pools in Astoria; a marina in Breezy Point; and venues for tennis and white water kayaking in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
“All in all, Queens really plays a central role in the New York City Games more than any other borough,” Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, the director of NYC2012, said recently.
Doctoroff has said these and other projects would be privately funded through ticket sales and national and local donations, which are expected to bring in a combined $1.5 billion.
Bloomberg said the Olympics would be a boon for the city, leaving behind a legacy of new infrastructure, affordable housing and a new Manhattan convention center that would be “the envy of the world.”
He said officials will work over the next 14 months to square away security and financial plans before the Olympic committee makes its final selection.
“Getting the honor to host the Olympics is not a sprint – it's a marathon,” Bloomberg said, adding “we will see all of you here in July 2005, hopefully with smiles on our faces.”
Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
