Bay Area Weathers Olympic Test

SAN FRANCISCO— It was a balmy 74 degrees and a bit breezy in San Jose, the potential site for gymnastics, judo, wrestling, and field hockey for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. And it was sweater weather in foggy San Francisco, the proposed spot for baseball, cycling, and the triathlon. The Bay Area was the seventh of eight stops for the Olympic Committees inspection team, which has endured sultry weather throughout most of the trip. In Cincinnati last month, heat melted an ice sculpture carved especially for the inspectors. And in Houston, it was 95 degrees during the Olympic Committees July inspection. Other cities in the running include Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Tampa, and Washington, D.C. But the cool Bay Area weather was just what the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee (BASOC) wanted. Although BASOC members plan to impress the team with the areas sports venues, public transit, hotel rooms, diversity, and designs for an Olympic Village on Moffett Field, the Bay Areas boosters especially want inspectors to remember the weather. After the inspection team tours Los Angeles later this week, the Olympic Committees deliberations will begin as the board narrows the field of competitors. The committee will pick a U.S. city next fall as its candidate to compete against international bid cities that want to be the host of the 2012 summer games. The International Olympic Committee announces its final choice in 2005. SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle