The four candidate cities bidding to host the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in 2016 - Chicago (USA), Tokyo (Japan), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Madrid (Spain) – were all at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne (Switzerland) on Wednesday to give a technical briefing to the 93 members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who were present for the event.

These presentations, which resulted in dozens of detailed questions, will be followed Thursday by an opportunity for members to ask more follow-up questions to each city about their projects, as well as giving the media an opportunity to meet with each of the Candidate Cities.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said, “Since my election in 2001, we have been making a concerted effort at the IOC to improve our transfer of knowledge capacities and to ensure that the evaluation process continues to be clear and offers criteria from which the cities can be evaluated.

"The fact that we have four cities with very strong projects bidding for the 2016 Games is testament to that work and to the success of recent editions of the Games. As part of the natural evolution of our effort, today’s briefings are allowing us to continue to bring more transparency, fairness and professionalism to the evaluation process, which has been underlined by the active participation of my fellow members.”

The briefings come closely on the heels of the four-day visits of the IOC’s Evaluation Commission, led by IOC Member Nawal El Moutawakel, to each of the Candidate Cities.

The Commission is now in the process of producing its evaluation report, which will be distributed to the IOC members no later than one month before election day. The final vote will be held in Copenhagen (Denmark) on 2 October 2009.

Evaluation Commission Chairwoman Nawal El Moutawakel noted, “The Evaluation Commission and I have just spent April and May visiting each of the four Candidate Cities, getting a good understanding for each of the projects and looking at the reality on the ground.

"These briefings will complement perfectly the Commission’s report and will ensure that all IOC members with a vote in October have access to the information that they need to evaluate the cities in the best way possible.”

This is the first time that the Candidate Cities have had the opportunity to brief the members in such a way and this evolution comes from the IOC’s evaluation process of previous bid procedures, where it was felt that another opportunity to present the technical elements of a bid to the IOC members would be appreciated by all involved.

Approved by the Executive Board at its meeting in Beijing (P.R. China) in April 2008, this addition to the evaluation of the Candidate Cities shows the IOC’s willingness to learn and improve on the bidding process and also to ensure that members are able to make their decision based on the most complete information possible.

IOC