China’s Olympic Bid

I’ve performed some research on China’s bid for the 2008 Olympic Games. Below are my findings on the accuracy of Rogge claiming that had “clearly the best bid.

Applicant City Evaluation Report Results From August 2000

Beijing Toronto Paris Istanbul Osaka
General Infrastructure 4.6 7.0 8.1 4.2 7.6
Accommodation 9.9 7.8 10.0 6.2 9.7
Olympic Village 8.5 7.0 8.0 6.4 7.0
Sports Infrastructure 7.1 7.9 7.9 6.9 7.0
Transport Infrastructure 7.0 8.1 8.4 6.9 7.4
Total Score: 37.1 37.7 42.2 30.5 38.7
Average Score: 7.41 7.54 8.44 6.09 7.73

According to these scores China was only the top contender in one category – their proposed Olympic Village. Overall China had the 2nd lowest composite score (37.1). Paris achieved the highest composite score (42.2). China also had the 2nd lowest Average Score (7.41), an average of the individual scores in each IOC category, whereas Paris once again had the higest score (8.44).

With Paris not only having the highest overall and average scores, but also having earned the highest individual scores in: General Infrastructure, Accommodation, Sports Infrastructure (tied with Toronto), and Transport Infrastructure, it seems that Paris and not Beijing had “clearly the best bid.

The situation is actually worse though. The chart below details Beijing’s scores per category vs. the mean average of all the Applicant Cities.

Beijing Average Difference
General Infrastructure 4.6 6.3 (-1.7)
Accommodation 9.9 8.7 1.2
Olympic Village 8.5 7.4 1.1
Sports Infrastructure 7.1 7.4 (-0.3)
Transport Infrastructure 7.0 7.5 (-0.5)

This shows that Beijing actually scored below the average in 3 out of 5 categories. China had a mean average score 0.2 points below the composite average. It seems strange that such a score could indicate that Beijing should have been considered for the short list of Applicant Cities that the IOC would have voted on to host the 2008 Olympic Games, much less that Beijing would win that election.

Something else must have prompted the choice of Beijing as the 2008 Olympic Games’ host city. It obviously wasn’t their comparative ability to manage such an endeavor. The IOC Evaluation Committee certainly found them wanting.

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4 Responses to “China’s Olympic Bid”

  1. Rogge Admits Error | Reflections From a Murky Pond Says:

    […] China’s Olympic Bid […]

  2. Aafke Says:

    I kept thinking ”Why bejing?” The pollution alone should exclude it from the list.
    I seriously wonder what the real startingpoints of the IOC are????

  3. jonolan Says:

    I have no idea, aafke. I do know the the process is highly susceptible to corruption tough. Many cities effectively bought their Olympic bids. I assume China did the same.

  4. Clifton Buck-Kauffman Says:

    Only the terminally naive would not agree that the whole Olympic Games location decision process, the IOC and most similar, supposedly positive, international institutions are massively corrupt.

    It is theoretically possible that they were not corrupt originally, but our species, once “civilized”, has only one true religion and that is GREED! You have it, I have it, and so does everyone else. It has always been so.

    Asia is as corrupt as anywhere. The USA excepted, we are the most corrupt, and the most corrupting, venal society in the short, sordid history of the planet.

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