Madrid and Barcelona: On the Road

Madrid and Barcelona: Together On the Road to the Olympics

Madrid, 16 September With just sixteen days to go until the host city for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games is announced, the Madrid 2016 bid is stepping up its efforts to make the dream a reality.

As support from all fields becomes of even greater value and necessity in this final sprint, the city of Barcelona – to date the only Spanish city to have hosted the Games and also a sub-venue of the Madrid 2016 bid – today reiterated its unconditional support for the Olympic aspirations of the Spanish capital. Mayor of Madrid Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón and Jordi Hereu, Mayor of Barcelona, accompanied by Mercedes Coghen, Madrid 2016 CEO, underlined their shared desire and mutual support for the project which will allow Spain to write a further page in the history of the Olympic movement.

Speaking on the support offered by the city of Barcelona, the Mayor of Madrid said: “There are few cities in Spain which are as united as Madrid and Barcelona. With just sixteen days until the final decision of the IOC on 2 October, Madrid feels the breath and strength that the strong bond of our two cities provides”. The meeting between both leaders took place today at Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium which was, in the words of Ruiz-Gallardón, “the venue of the best summer Games in history”. The two Mayors were joined by members of the Madrid 2016 bid team; Juan Antonio Samaranch, Honorary President of the IOC; Jaime Lissavetzky, Secretary of State for Sport; Alejandro Blanco, President of the Spanish Olympic Committee; and Jordi Sans, Silver medallist at the Barcelona ’92 Games and gold medallist in Atlanta ’96.

An example to follow
The momentum offered by Barcelona for the Madrid 2016 bid forms part of the enormous united support of people and institutions throughout Spain, as was the case almost two decades ago when Barcelona presented its bid. According to the most recent survey, public support for the Madrid bid has reached 93.6%, support which is built on the unity of institutions, governments and social organizations. The Mayor stressed the backing offered by the city of Barcelona in stating: “The closeness of our cities constitutes an effective and convergent backing. We feel very proud that at such a decisive time, the city that has gone down in history as one of the most brilliant bastions of Olympism wants to strengthen the ties which already bind us in supporting Madrid as the best possible option for the 2016 Games”.

The Madrid 2016 bid has always referenced the Barcelona 1992 Games, as what it means for the world as much as how it keeps the Olympic flame burning brightly. The organisational success of the Barcelona Olympics is effectively another guarantee offered by the Madrid candidacy. Added to the 400 international sporting competitions that Spain has hosted in the last ten years, the Barcelona Games adds more vital, relevant experience in the high level sporting arena that strengthens our bid”.

A surviving legacy
The Mayor highlighted the parallels between the Barcelona Games and the Madrid 2016 bid, which, as was achieved through the success of the Barcelona Games, will leave a lasting legacy for the world. Seventeen years after the Barcelona Olympic and Paralympic Games in 1992, the legacy of the Games remains alive thanks to the creation of new sporting facilities and areas, the regeneration of the city and its opening up with a new seafront.

The Mayor said: “Before Barcelona was chosen as the venue for the Summer Games of 1992, we found ourselves not unlike today in a very delicate economic situation, with high levels of unemployment and little optimism. The effect that the Games had in terms of economic regeneration in Barcelona, and throughout all of Spain, was momentous, and meant that the Catalan capital came to the forefront, along with Madrid, of national production activity – the tourism industry boomed, cultural vitality and public services became more advanced”.

Economically, the impact reached €18,000 million but there was another added value: the global impact of the city and the country. “Before the Games of 1992, Barcelona was a great city, and this helped achieve the Games. Today, after having celebrated the Games, Barcelona is quite simply a universal city. It is known and respected throughout the world”.

The Mayor of Madrid concluded, “Madrid, a city which already occupies a very distinctive place in the world’s network of global cities, now wants to consolidate its position around through the same route taken by Barcelona.” It will do this in the language of environmental quality, social and economic sustainability, technological excellence, and humanity. “But above all, we will do as leading athletes who, as many of you are supporting us here today, embody the hope and confidence of the whole country which in 1992, through you, achieved 22 medals.” This success which the athletes achieved then, and Madrid wants to repeat it in its own Olympic Stadium, “is very much owing to Barcelona, a city to which Madrid feels especially close and friendly”.

ENDS

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