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TRANSCRIPT OF JOINT NEWS CONFERENCE WITH KEVAN GOSPER AND
JOHN RALPH, NEW TAKANAWA PRINCE HOTEL, TOKYO
18 SEPTEMBER 1990
E OE PROOF ONLY
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you must be bitterly
disappointed. PM: Yes I am. Particularly for John Ralph, Kevan Gosper
and all the team who've put so much work into it. They
are the people up front. A marvellous team. There was
an enormous amount of work done by hundreds and thousands
of people behind the scenes. We honestly believed we had
the best bid. We honestly believed that on merits, and
given that the Games have only once in the history of the
Games been in the Southern Hemisphere, we really thought
that we could do it best and it was. the Southern
Hemisphere's turn. But the people with the votes thought
otherwise. JOURNALIST: Fair competition Mr Hawke?
PM: of course you've got to accept it's a fair result.
JOURNALIST: The Greeks are very upset and say the people
with the money have won the Games.
PM: Well the Greeks can speak for themselves. I don't
know whether John Ralph or Kevan have got anything else
to say, but that's-
GOSPER: I think the Greeks would be very disappointed,
like we are. But it was a five round vote and it was a
clear majority eventually for Atlanta, and we must be
good losers. I agree with the Prime Minister. We had
first class leadership in John Ralph. We had enormous
support and we had a Very good team. We could never have
asked more from the Prime Minister. Now we're managing
disappointment. We're disappointed for our colleagues in
Melbourne. But we did our best. We had a very good bid
and we had a very good argument. The decision I think
finally rested on whether the members felt that Athens
could confidently put on a Centennial Games. And their
answer was no and therefore the United States looked the
most secure option. That's the best conclusion I can
come to.
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JOURNALIST: How did we go in the voting?
G OSPER: We stayed in until the third round. In the
second round we were actually coming second. But an
astonishing thing happened in the third round. We fell
back and were separated by one vote between ourselves and
Toronto. Had we survived that round it may have been a
different outcome, but I doubt it. I think finally what
showed out was that Athens held in there until finally
the members decided it wasn't a secure enough decision.
They must have believed that the Americans could deliver
a That's all I can conclude. But I mean there will
be a lot of analysis going on. we're just disappointed
for everybody who supported us.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, will we be having a go just like
this for the year 2000?
PM: That's for the Australian Olympic Federation to
consider.
GOSPER: And tonight's not to answer that. Thanks Prime
Minister.
JOURNALIST: So what have you got to say to all those
people in Melbourne who've gathered tonight in the
squares and Flinders Street Station?
PM: Thanks for your support and your enthusiasm. All we
can say together is we did our best and we're sorry we
couldn't deliver.
GOSPER: Absolutely. And I hope we can be good losers.
We mustn't take anything away from Atlanta.
JOURNALIST: Mr Ralph, can we get your reaction?
RALPH: We have to abide by the decision of the members
of the International Olympic Committee. We're all very
disappointed. I'm disappointed for those people back
home because so many, you know, thousands of people have
put their backs behind this. We did our best. I think
the bid itself was a strong bid. Our presentation today
was clearly it got a great reception. But it didn't
come through in the votes.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, would you like to see this great
spirit that was shown today by the Australians in some of
the other endeavours that we're seeking like
PM: Well Australians when they do pull together they are
marvellous. It was great to see the spirit today. I'd
like to see it as often as possible. But you can't
expect that Australians are always going to be united on
everything. We couldn't even get some of the people we
thought should've supported us supporting us.
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GOSPER: I'd just like to say that Australia was in one
of the biggest world competitions in history. That's not
bad to be in there for three rounds out of five. We
wanted to win. We believed we'd win. We didn't win.
But we were in the world competition.
JOURNALIST: Are you going back for 2000?
GOSPER: I wouldn't dare to answer that tonight. This is
not the time to answer it. I think we just deal with the
result today. We've got time to think about that later.
JOURNALIST: Is any city in Australia big enough to host
the Olympic Games?
GOSPER: Melbourne. Sydney.
JOURNALIST: Mr Gosper, what's the attraction of the
American television networks? Was that an important
factor in the votes?
GOSPER: I can't account for the other members' minds on
this. I suppose financial strengths and administrative
capacity and organisation of people was what finally
counted in the Americans' favour versus Athens. But I
believe that we were every bit as good in organisation
ability and in terms of the team and the capacity
But we can't detract from the result.
JOURNALIST: Mr Hawke, have you got anything to say to
Senator Peter Walsh tonight?
PM: I guess he'll be celebrating.
JOURNALIST: What will you be doing this evening sir?
PM: As I say, I'll be hitting the mineral water hard.
GOSPER: We'll be alright. We just want to handle it
with dignity. OK.
ends