New York, San Francisco Named U.S. Finalist Cities in Bid to Host 2012 Olympic Games

CHICAGO, Ill., August 28. NEW York City and San Francisco have been named the two finalist cities by the U.S. Olympic Committee to compete for selection as the U.S. candidate city for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Charles Moore, chair of the U.S. Olympic Committee's Bid Evaluation Task Force and a 1952 Olympic gold medalist in track and field, made the announcement Tuesday after an all-day meeting to decide the two finalists.

New York City and San Francisco were selected to give presentations to the USOC's 123-member Board of Directors, Nov. 3, in Colorado Springs. The USOC board will then select the U.S. candidate city to compete for the honor of hosting the 2012 Games. The IOC will name the winning city in the fall of 2005.

Moore described all four cities as "more than capable of hosting the Olympic Games."

"Each city, Houston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., was led by an effective team of government, corporate and community leaders and each had a healthy commitment of athletes," Moore said of the four cities. "Each one developed creative plans that could easily have handled an outstanding Games.

"The choice was not simple. All four deserved to be selected."

The bid evaluation team based their selection model primarily on the same criteria used by the International Olympic Committee. Sports and general infrastructure, accommodations including the Olympic Village– and transportation were given special attention.

International appeal, financial capacity, commitment to the Paralympics and partnership ability with the USOC were given the greatest scrutiny.

"In the end, our decision was most influenced by financial capacity and international appeal. While our selection was certainly not easy, we feel that these two cities have the best opportunity to win the international competition in 2005, and we have full expectation that our candidate city can win, and that America will host the games for the ninth time in 2012."

Herman Frazier, USOC Vice President and a member of the Task Force, said, "This was a fair process from start to finish. We want to congratulate these four cities that have done much to advance the Olympic Movement. We fully expect the support of our nation when the USOC board makes its selection in November."

The original eight cities also included Cincinnati, Dallas, Los Angeles and Tampa. The Task force trimmed the field to four on Oct. 26, 2001, after visits to all eight candidate cities in 2001.

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