Klammer steps in to head Salzburg 2014 bid

Former ski great Franz Klammer was chosen to lead Salzburg’s bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics on Monday after the campaign’s head resigned due to illness.
SALZBURG, Austria — Former ski great Franz Klammer was chosen to lead Salzburg’s bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics on Monday after the campaign’s head resigned due to illness.
    Klammer takes over from Fedor Radmann, who stepped down Monday with unspecified health problems less than six months before the IOC votes on the host city in Guatemala City on July 4.
    Salzburg is competing against two other finalists — Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Sochi, Russia.
    Radmann, 62, had been the chief executive officer of the bid. No immediate replacement as CEO was made, but the bid committee said Klammer would lead the effort as the “new face” of the campaign.
    “It wasn’t a business assignment — it was a passion and a deep conviction,” a tearful Radmann said. “My heart belongs to Salzburg and the bid, but I have to accept that my body has its limits.”
    Austria Olympic Committee President Leo Wallner said the panel plans to make special use of Klammer in its international presentations.
    Radmann said Salzburg’s bid is “exemplary” and believes the city has a “very good” chance to win.
    Klammer dominated downhill racing throughout the 1970s, winning gold at the 1976 Games in Innsbruck — the last Olympics held in Austria.
    “He’ll be a charming ambassador,” Salzburg Deputy Governor Wilfried Haslauer said.
    Radmann is the second bid chairman to resign, complicating Austria’s campaign to win the Games. The first, Toni Schutti, quit last March.
    An IOC evaluation team is scheduled to visit Salzburg on March 14-17 to review its bid.
    In 2003, Pyeongchang came within two votes of upsetting Vancouver, Canada, in the vote for the 2010 Games. Salzburg finished third while Sochi, a Black Sea resort, is a first-time bid finalist.

— The Associated Press