A “two-cluster concept” has been confirmed by the Munich 2018 Bid Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
The concept - that all ice sports will take place in the Ice Cluster in Munich and all snow sports in the Snow Cluster in Garmisch-Partenkirchen - was agreed at a Board of Directors and the Shareholders’ General Meeting at a session in Munich yesterday.
Bobsleigh, luge and skeleton competitions will be held in Schönau am Königssee in the Berchtesgadener Land. The biathlon and cross-country skiing contests will be held below the Romanshöhe summits in the north of Oberammergau.
“The two-cluster concept has held up under intensive scrutiny, from a sporting perspective, in terms of traffic and also in regard to ecology,” said Thomas Bach, president of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB). “It is the ideal basis for an internationally competitive bid.”
Bernhard Schwank, joint-director of the Munich 2018 Bid Committee added: “The new locations were chosen in the light of both sporting considerations and environmental ones, such as the need to avoid infringements of protected areas.”
Yesterday’s meeting also announced former Olympic, World and European figure skating champion Katarina Witt as the head of a 23-member board of trustees for the 2018 bid. The board also includes German football legend Franz Beckenbauer and former Olympic skiing champion Rosi Mittermaier.
