Lyon and Lille – Once Olympic Bid Cities
by Philip Barker
Lyon and Lille will stage Olympic events for the first time this week as part of Paris 2024, but both cities had previously bid for the Games in their own right.
On Wednesday Iraq against Ukraine is the first of 11 Olympic football matches at the Stade Lyon.
Over 60 years ago, the city fathers had designs on staging the entire 1968 Games.
“We should do our utmost to make these Games a real success every way, solemnly binding ourselves to adhere scrupulously to all Olympic regulations as decreed by Baron Pierre de Coubertin,” pledged the bidding committee.
“Lyon has proposed its candidature because it considers its programme for sports facilities capable of fulfilling such needs.”
This included the Pierre de Coubertin, a Sports Centre named in honour of Coubertin which included a stadium, swimming pool and an indoor Palais de Sports.
Sailing was to be held either on the lakes, either at Annecy or Aix-Les-Bains. Other locations on the Mediterranean were proposed as alternative settings.
Led by Mayor Louis Pradel and sports specialist Tony Bertrand, Lyon staged a lavish reception and offered the finest French cuisine and champagne, supervised by noted chef Gérard Nandron.
This upset some IOC members including Norwegian Olaf Ditlev-Simonsen who complained of the “relentless propaganda of the candidate towns.”
He proposed that “no candidate town representatives should be received in private houses, nor should permission be given to organise cocktail parties and the giving of all kinds of presents should be banned.”
When the final vote was taken, Mexico City was the overwhelming choice with 30 votes, beating out Detroit with 14 and Lyon polling 12.
Lyon had been named as a location for football when Lille tabled its own bid for the 2004 Games.
It had been inspired by the Association Lille Europe Olympique President Francis Ampe and the Lille business, industry and academic community.
The plan was unveiled in June 1995 at the European Cup Athletics meeting in nearby Villeneuve D’Ascq where an Olympic Stadium was planned in a stadium enlarged from 30,000 to 65,000.
They promised that “Lille 2004 will be the People’s Games using new technology to improve local and worldwide sharing of the Olympic values.”
They had an influential backer in Pierre Mauroy, who served as French Prime Minister and at one time Mayor of Lille.
Marie Jose Perec already an Olympic gold medallist in 1992, became its official patron.
That November, the French Olympic Committee duly adopted Lille as its official candidate.
The following month President Jacques Chirac guaranteed a quarter of the bidding costs which were set at 80 million French Francs.
The projected budget in the event of the Games was to be 7.2 million francs.
The bid was promoted during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and an official bid was presented in August.
The bid promised an “Olympic crescent” of closely grouped sites which featured an Olympic Park at Lille where swimming diving and water polo were envisaged.
Sailing was to be at Boulogne.
It was planned that the Olympic Village would be in the centre of Lille.
Although Lille was visited by the evaluation commission, headed by Thomas Bach it did not make it to the final stages.
Athens was eventually chosen to host in 2004.
20 years later, Lille makes its own Olympic bow with preliminary basketball on July 27 but will also host the medal rounds of handball later in the Games.
These events will take place in an arena named in honour of Mauroy.
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