The five candidates for the '08 Olympic Summer Games -- Toronto, Osaka, Beijing, Istanbul and Paris -- briefed the IOC Exec Board on their progress yesterday in Lausanne, according to Jim Byers of the TORONTO STAR, who writes that Beijing is "still considered the favourite." But one IOC official said that the Toronto bid "came out on top in their presentation." The IOC official: "Toronto had by far the best presentation. I would support having the Games somewhere else, but I thought their concept blew everyone away today." IOC VP Dick Pound said Toronto's presentation was "very good -- excellent. Were they the best? I'd say there wasn't anyone better. But they were all good." T.O.- Bid CEO John Bitove, who described Toronto as "'young and full of energy,' boasted that it's a high-tech city that would provide the best television broadcast facilities so that the rest of the world would get maximum enjoyment" from the Games (TORONTO STAR, 12/14). Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman said the IOC Exec Board "just seemed flabbergasted by our presentation" (TORONTO SUN, 12/14). A WANG AND A PRAYER? Also in Toronto, Steve Keating writes, "If there was any doubt in anyone's mind that Beijing remains the front-runner [to land the '08 Games], it was erased yesterday," as the Beijing delegation "played to a standing-room-only audience squeezed into the marbled foyer" at the IOC HQs (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 12/14). During the briefing, Beijing Olympic Bid Committee Secretary General Wang Wei said, "The Olympic movement belongs to the whole of mankind, and without 1.3 billion people the Olympic movement is not complete. ... We want the world to see our city in a new light. No other event can help us the way the Olympics can" (TORONTO STAR, 12/14). Beijing Mayor Liu Qi said during his presentation yesterday, "New Beijing, Great Olympics is the concept and commitment of our bid for the Olympic Games" (Beijing-Olympic.org.cn).
