The bid for SQUASH FOR OLYMPICS bid went well. Thought I should share it with all who could and all who could not take part in the bid celebrations at Saket Sports Club for the Grudge Cup 09. All your enthusiasm and efforts have now to bear fruit and we will see our own champions in the Olympics.
Cheers!!
Bharat
Subject: The Olympic Bid Presentation
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:36:57 +0100
From: wsf@worldsquash.org
To: wsf@worldsquash.org
The Olympic Bid Presentation - to the Worldwide Squash Family - post Lausanne,
President Ramachandran has asked me to write this message as quickly as possible as a supplement to the press releases.
We were all delighted with the way our presentation went on Monday. We spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday rehearsing the presentations, reviewing, changing here and there, getting the timings right and also going over potential questions which we thought might be asked.
Scott Garrett, our Bid Manager, worked tirelessly to bond and direct the group and get the presentations up to top standard. Come Monday afternoon off we went to find that things were running a bit early, so there was no waiting around, it was into the deeply impressive IOC Conference Room and on with the presentation.
For those of us sitting downstairs waiting time passed very slowly. Then we heard applause - amazing - and next our party came round the corner with our Patron, HRH Tunku Imran, wreathed in smiles. All the panel were exhausted with the tension: Thierry Lincou summed it up "that was pressure of a degree I've never encountered in any match I've played".
The presentation was introductions, then our brand new DVD, then two minutes each from the panel members with accompanying photographs on the four-sided central screen, then questions, total 30 minutes.
We had one absolute starlet on our team, 13 year old Hanna Fekede, tiny in stature but with a mixture of poise and utter charm ('so cute' from the other girls when they met and then automatically mothered her, Hanna's parents not having been able to come, though she was wonderfully looked after by coach Renata Paiva). In a wonderful presentation, which struck an emotional chord with every listener, Hanna stood up and spoke totally from memory. Read her story, please where?. When she finished there was spontaneous applause from the IOC Executive Board!
The summary followed, then amazingly no questions bar one from the President asking World no 1 Nicol David “how a boyfriend might be fitted into her incredibly busy schedule”, a question fielded with total aplomb - ask her! President Rogge then said 'an excellent presentation' and there was further applause. We had a long period of press interviews after that, with Rami, Nicol and of course Hanna in much sought out!
You can see our state of art DVD, which in HD really does prove that the ball can be seen and that squash is TV friendly, and the presentation speeches on our web site - do take a look.
Four months ago we were lagging behind; there is no doubt about it. But since January we have worked tirelessly and made gigantic strides. Our Patron, who is of course an IOC Member, was absolutely delighted with the massive improvement in our presentation and the way we had answered most of the questions posed after the November 2008 presentation. Everyone involved really managed this weekend to give it the very best shot possible and the whole squash family can be deeply proud of that panel of presenters: HRH Tunku Imran, President Ramachandran, Nicol David, Thierry Lincou, Siyole Lusasemi (a first year professional from South Africa) and Hanna Fekede. Scott Garrett was the IT man and Team Director and has given our bid massive commitment since invited to become Bid Manager in mid January. Our PR/Media company, Juniper, has also been doing splendid work especially for the publications which IOC members read.
We must not forget the many years of preparatory work which went into all of this. Tunku Imran, Susie Simcock, Jahangir Khan all worked so hard during their terms of office as President and thereafter to develop the contacts and get us the opportunity to become serious contenders for a place in the Olympic Games. Working on this with all of them of course was our utterly dedicated CEO for these many years, Ted Wallbutton, whose contribution was immense. We have been much helped this past year in particular by Ramona von Ondarza, whose quite amazing knowledge of things Olympic and the IOC people has been invaluable to us.
We have Jahangir now featured in the Olympic museum in the Sporting Heroes section - if in Lausanne do visit this.
Many, many others have also helped and supported this bid. Our partners PSA and WISPA are totally committed. Year in, year out our own media Director, Howard Harding, has also kept us in the Olympic eye. We are also deeply appreciative of the literally hundreds of messages wishing us good luck, which we received between us this weekend, from National Federations and individuals - thank you all so much. Many contributions to our fund have been made and we hope that there will be many more yet as we still face a very significant shortage - please do continue to publicise this need and help us.
We have done all that we can do up to this stage. We must now keep ourselves in front of the IOC Executive Board during the weeks to come and we shall do so. They have an incredibly difficult task ahead in choosing two out of seven excellent contending sports. We just hope and believe that the reasons which we gave them, as in our view compelling in favour of squash, will see us as one of these two sports, turning our long-held dream into a reality and seeing our squash family become part of the much greater Olympic family.
Dr George Mieras
WSF Olympic Bid Coordinator
