Bid Details
On March 22, 2007, Prague confirmed its bid when the Prague Assembly voted 53-10-3 in support of launching an official bid. Tomas Petera was the head of the Praha Olympijska (Olympic Prague) company.
This was the third try by Prague and the Czech Republic to host the Olympic Games. Previously Prague placed a bid for 1924 Summer Olympics which was won by Paris and planned a bid for 1980 Summer Olympics but Warsaw Pact invasion and normalization put an end to these plans; the Olympics were hosted by Moscow. Useful recent experience includes the recent hosting the 2004 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships.
The Czech Republic (including Moravia, Silesia and Bohemia) has a strong sports legacy, which appeals to the IOC. They have attended every games except the Athens 1896 Games and the Los Angeles 1984 Games. The Czechs have been especially proficient in gymnastics, and for winter sports, ice hockey. The current decathlon world champion is Czech Roman Šebrle, who as tradition dictates, holds the title of "World's Greatest Athlete" and who was identified to be a potential face of the Games.
Prague is known as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and as a popular tourist destination, it holds many of the cultural aspects that appeal to the IOC. The bid book indicates around 38,000 hotel rooms are planned by 2016, but this amount is short of IOC expectations and is far behind competing bids.
Prague allocated 45 million crowns to the Olympic movement for studies, advertisements, and opinion polls. The bid budget of US$22 million alloted for the application and candidacy phase was roughly half that of other bids.
Read more about this topic: Prague Bid For The 2016 Summer Olympics
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