Salzburg bidders keen to play down role of favourites

SALZBURG, Austria, Mar 13 (Reuters) Organisers of the Salzburg 2014 Winter Olympics bid will be trying to avoid the word ''favourites'' this week when International Olympic Committee (IOC) delegates carry out their technical inspection of the Austrian city.

The Salzburg bid has been widely viewed as the frontrunner almost since the day it was launched, but that label has seldom carried much significance in previous decisions by the IOC in its awarding of Games.

Among the most recent surprises was the awarding of the 2012 Summer Games to London when Paris had been seen as the favourite with a seemingly unassailable lead just hours before the vote.

The 2006 Winter Games vote that picked Turin was another shock with the Swiss town of Sion looking the likely winner going into the vote.

The Salzburg bidders, who face competition from Russia's Sochi and South Korea's Pyeongchang, are confident they can impress the 13-member evaluation commission, headed by Japanese IOC member Chiharu Igaya, when it begins its four-day tour of the proposed Olympic venues on Wednesday.

The technical elements of the Salzburg bid are seen as particularly strong, especially since eight of the 11 competition venues already exist, many of them with a history of staging major winter sports events.

But the bid's leaders say they are well aware that technical excellence is only one element -- albeit an important one -- of what it takes to secure the Games.

''I would really distinguish between being technical favourites and being actual favourites in the overall mix of things that lead the IOC members to cast their votes,'' Salzburg executive director Gernot Leitner told Reuters.

''I think each of the three bids has its own individual story and individual 'something' that could make them the overall favourite. Certainly nobody on our team is thinking that the job is already done.

''We have around 40 people working on the bid right now, often until two o'clock every morning, so I would not say we are putting much emphasis on whether or not we are seen as favourites.'' FINAL STOP-OFF Salzburg is the final stop-off for the evaluation commission which has already completed inspections of Sochi, and Pyeongchang, a mountainous town 200 km (120 miles) east of Seoul.

Following its visit to Pyeongchang, the commission heaped praise on the bid's compact layout and its strong public support but said the South Korean bid could fall down on the lack of home nation success in many Olympic winter sports.

That will not be a problem for Russia, which has picked up 33 gold medals in the last four Winter Games.

The commission warned though that Sochi was facing much greater challenges, including a lack of existing venues, little experience in staging major sporting events and concerns over the environmental aspects of the bid.

Salzburg is emphasising the compact nature of its bid with organisers promising ''the most compact Winter Games plan in the last three decades'', with journeys of just 55 minutes between the furthest venues.

It also boasts a level of experience and tradition in staging winter World Cup and world championship events that neither of its rivals come close to matching.

But Salzburg's status as an established winter sport location could count against it if IOC members choose to back a lesser known venue in the hope of spreading the appeal of winter sport or bringing economic growth to a previously overlooked region.

The evaluation commission is set to present its final report on all three Olympic candidates on June 4, with IOC members then determining the winner in a vote held in Guatemala City a month later.

REUTERS SAM KP0936