Spain's King Juan Carlos declares Madrid Olympic bid a national project'
4/2/2009
King
Juan Carlos of Spain has described Madrid’s bid to host the 2016
Olympic & Paralympic Games as ‘a national project' which
expresses the hopes and dreams of the Spanish people to organize an
Olympics as unforgettable as Barcelona ‘92’ and presented it with
a major award.
The
King together with Queen Sofía, the Prince and Princess of the
Asturias, the Infanta Elena and the Duke and Duchess of Palma,
presided this week over the awards ceremony for the National Sports
Prizes 2008 in the Royal Palace. Also present were Mercedes Cabrera,
Minister for Education, Social Policy and Sport, and Jaime
Lissavetzky, Secretary of State for Sport.
The
King underlined how the sporting successes of 2008, the best year in
the history of national sport for the country, demonstrated how much
Spaniards can truly achieve when they participate ‘together, with
rigour and much effort’.
In
his speech at the annual prize-giving, brought together by the Higher
Council for Sport in Spain to recognize athletes and institutions
which have promoted sport, the King reaffirmed how the Crown was
working ‘tirelessly and with every hope’ for Madrid to be elected
host city for the 2016 Games at the IOC vote this autumn.
The
Madrid Olympic bid and its City Hall richly deserved its Higher
Council for Sport award, declared the monarch, which acknowledged its
status as ‘a national project’.
King
Juan Carlos congratulated the prize-winning sportspeople.
“Exceptional men and women, you have prepared yourselves with
tenacity and constancy to reach goals which seemed unattainable: you
are role models for the whole of Spanish life and, as distinguished
ambassadors, project the best image of Spain to the world.”
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