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 GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (AP) - Forced into a catch-up mode after a rocky campaign, Austria went on the offensive Sunday in the final days before the vote on the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, the first of three heads of government to come to Guatemala to push his country's bid, said Salzburg can't compete with the money thrown behind rival bids from Russia and South Korea but has the ready-built venues, safe conditions and passionate crowds that the others can't offer.
"Is the vote for the sake of Olympic ideals or is it for geopolitics?" Gusenbauer said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We do not need to have the Olympic Games for a special purpose for us. We think we can offer something special — more emotion and more passion. This is what the Olympics so desperately needs."
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