Suzanne
11-02-06, 12:23 PM
The national flag of Bulgaria was raised in the Olympic village in Turin at a special ceremony on Wednesday evening. This coincided with the hoisting of the Canadian, Kyrghis and Lebanese flags. The ceremony was attended by Bulgarian Olympic Committee President Mrs. Stefka Kostatadinova, World and Olympic high jump Champion, and Bulgarian State Agency for Youth and Sports President Mrs. Vessela Lecheva, Olympic Champion in pistol shooting and Miss Olympics of the Seoul Games.
Bulgarian PM Sergey Stanishev, Bulgarian Olympic Committee President Stefka Kostadinova and State Agency for Youth and Sports Vessela Lecheva conferred with International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge in Turin late on Wednesday evening. Rogge said he was perfectly familiar with Bulgaria’s capital of Sofia’s bid to host the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
The Bulgarian winter resort of Chepelare in the Rhodope mountains, Southern Bulgaria, offered free lifts to mark their Ekaterina Dafovska’s winning the first ever Gold medal for this country in winter sports, in the biathlon in the Nagano Games in 1988.
Coach loads of Italian schoolchildren will be bussed in to boost crowds at the Turin Winter Olympics, organizers said. The children will be given cut-price tickets to help fill the stands at less popular events, president of the organizing committee Valentino Castellani told a news conference.
"Spectators are part of the show," Castellani said. "They create the atmosphere.
"We've sold more than 700,000 tickets which is, let's say, 85 percent of the available volume. And we've sold more of the expensive tickets than the cheaper ones.
"But this number is not uniformly distributed because we have some sports events which are almost sold out."
Castellani said that the organizers (TOROC) had a contingency plan for sports which were less popular in Italy, including luge and skeleton.
"We will bring up boys and girls from the schools. We have for them an educational program and low-cost tickets."
Castellani did not specify what price the tickets would be.
He said that TOROC's target was, for every event, to have more than 50
percent of seats occupied.
At the last Summer Olympics in Athens in 2004 some sports were played out in front of almost empty stands, including softball, baseball and women's hockey.
However, Greek organizers refused to sell cut-price tickets for fear of legal action by those who had bought them months earlier at full price.
The board of Turin's Olympic committee has approved a re-jigged budget for 2006 after organisers had to cover a shortfall in government aid only weeks before the start of the Games.
Organisers have managed to fill the hole with help from the region and the city. Turin mayor Sergio Chiamparino complained during a news conference on Monday that Italy's national Olympic committee had not matched that support.
Relations between centre-left local organisers and Italy's centre-right government have been hurt by political quarrels and rows over money.
Late last year, Italy's government made last-minute cuts in public funding for the Olympics, which will run from February 10 to 26, leaving organising committee TOROC with a budget gap of some 40 million euros (27 million pounds).
Organisers will set up a special group to monitor costs and revenues and keep the budget under control, Chiamparino said. They also plan to bolster the budget with a scratch-and-win lottery and the sale of houses in the Olympic villages.
http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_English/News/WOTandB.htm
Bulgarian PM Sergey Stanishev, Bulgarian Olympic Committee President Stefka Kostadinova and State Agency for Youth and Sports Vessela Lecheva conferred with International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge in Turin late on Wednesday evening. Rogge said he was perfectly familiar with Bulgaria’s capital of Sofia’s bid to host the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
The Bulgarian winter resort of Chepelare in the Rhodope mountains, Southern Bulgaria, offered free lifts to mark their Ekaterina Dafovska’s winning the first ever Gold medal for this country in winter sports, in the biathlon in the Nagano Games in 1988.
Coach loads of Italian schoolchildren will be bussed in to boost crowds at the Turin Winter Olympics, organizers said. The children will be given cut-price tickets to help fill the stands at less popular events, president of the organizing committee Valentino Castellani told a news conference.
"Spectators are part of the show," Castellani said. "They create the atmosphere.
"We've sold more than 700,000 tickets which is, let's say, 85 percent of the available volume. And we've sold more of the expensive tickets than the cheaper ones.
"But this number is not uniformly distributed because we have some sports events which are almost sold out."
Castellani said that the organizers (TOROC) had a contingency plan for sports which were less popular in Italy, including luge and skeleton.
"We will bring up boys and girls from the schools. We have for them an educational program and low-cost tickets."
Castellani did not specify what price the tickets would be.
He said that TOROC's target was, for every event, to have more than 50
percent of seats occupied.
At the last Summer Olympics in Athens in 2004 some sports were played out in front of almost empty stands, including softball, baseball and women's hockey.
However, Greek organizers refused to sell cut-price tickets for fear of legal action by those who had bought them months earlier at full price.
The board of Turin's Olympic committee has approved a re-jigged budget for 2006 after organisers had to cover a shortfall in government aid only weeks before the start of the Games.
Organisers have managed to fill the hole with help from the region and the city. Turin mayor Sergio Chiamparino complained during a news conference on Monday that Italy's national Olympic committee had not matched that support.
Relations between centre-left local organisers and Italy's centre-right government have been hurt by political quarrels and rows over money.
Late last year, Italy's government made last-minute cuts in public funding for the Olympics, which will run from February 10 to 26, leaving organising committee TOROC with a budget gap of some 40 million euros (27 million pounds).
Organisers will set up a special group to monitor costs and revenues and keep the budget under control, Chiamparino said. They also plan to bolster the budget with a scratch-and-win lottery and the sale of houses in the Olympic villages.
http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_English/News/WOTandB.htm