“Through sport we can create
a new city”

Mercedes Coghen, CEO of Madrid 2016, describes how the Olympic Movement is already transforming Madrid

I remember the Barcelona Games in 1992. I won a gold medal for hockey and the experience of winning that medal, representing my country in the greatest sports event on earth, changed my life forever. The Olympic Games promotes the values of teamwork, fair play and giving of your very best at the highest level. It encourages people from every country in the world to celebrate sport and to celebrate life. The Games not only changed my life and the lives of all those who experienced the event; it transformed the city of Barcelona. Always a jewel of the Mediterranean, Barcelona is now a modern, world-class city that attracts people from around the world to its sport, culture and nightlife. This is the legacy of the 1992 Games and is evident for all to see.

Madrid 2016 wants to strengthen relationships
through sporting values

We understand the power of sport and the Olympics to transform the built environment. We have seen it first hand. Over the next twenty years it is estimated that as much as 75 per cent of the world’s population will live in cities.

Achieving harmony in urban planning and city dwelling will not happen by accident; it requires thought, consideration and attention to the detail of what it means to be part of a city environment in the twenty-first century.

For Madrid 2016, the sporting city of tomorrow is a vital element of our bid. The legacy of an Olympic and Paralympic Games in Madrid will place Olympic values at the heart of modern city living, encompassing the physical, social, cultural and spiritual aspects of urban life. This is represented by our candidacy logo. The five fingers of the hand represent the different aspects of our planned legacy: sport, economy, society, environment and culture. Madrid 2016 will be the Games With The Human Touch and it is our aim that every member of our city, country and the world will be touched by our Olympic project.

The legacy has begun
Madrid’s Games will begin and end with athletes of the past, present and future. To achieve their best, athletes need spectacular competition venues and an ideal environment. 77 per cent of our venues are already built and all permanent venues are primed for public use immediately after the Games. Many are in use already. The Magic Box tennis venue hosted the Madrid Masters Tennis Series in May 2009. It has been described as one of the most significant buildings in worldwide sports architecture and is a shining example of our legacy already in action.

The Olympic Stadium, home of the opening and closing ceremonies and all track and field events, will provide a new 65,000 seat home venue for Atlético Madrid. Our Aquatics Centre, due for completion in 2011, will deliver facilities for national and regional squads, local clubs and community users. Venues for volleyball, basketball and cycling will provide fantastic resources for users all over the country. All sports competitions hosted in temporary venues for the Games will have their own legacy in other existing or planned facilities throughout the city.

These venues provide the basis for people of all ages, nationalities and abilities to practise and enjoy sport – sports they already know and love along with sports they have yet to discover. Every Madrileño will have community sports facilities within a ten minute walk of their house, empowering them to lead active, healthy lifestyles from childhood to old age. Our Generation 16 education program has already guaranteed an extra hour of sport in schools throughout Spain every week, showing that our legacy programme, like our venues, is already a reality and making a difference to everyday lives.

We celebrate the diversity and openness of Madrid, a city with 190 nationalities living together in harmony and happiness, guided by the Olympic values of cohesion, friendship and inclusivity. Sport plays a major role in this and will continue to do so as Madrid opens its arms to visitors and settlers from all around the globe. We will use Madrid as an urban model of togetherness that others can learn from. At the heart of the physical and social development of any city is the need for sustainability, to keep the city strong and thriving today, tomorrow and far into the future. The environment has to be an integral and universal element of our project and we aim to be one of the cleanest, greenest, most environmentally-advanced cities in the world. All our venues and the Olympic Village will use sustainable and natural resources, reusing or recycling 100 per cent of their waste and using innovative, clean energy sources. Our fourteen hours of daily summer sunshine will generate a lot more than suntans and smiling faces!

Our environmental legacy project will create over 50 hectares of new park land, planted with over 40,000 new trees, and will transform a current landscape of 780 desolate hectares into green spaces for sport and recreation. Madrid is a wonderfully compact city that allows visitors to walk between all the sports venues, accommodation and cultural attractions, but the Games will also create 300km of new bicycle paths to encourage sustainable travel and healthy living in redeveloped areas of the city.

Regeneration, cohesion and a vision for the future are just a few of the many things that sport teaches us. It is a powerful force for good in our city lives. Madrid will be the ultimate twenty-first century sporting city in heart, mind, body and soul. This begins with the Games With The Human Touch.