PARIS -- Munich could well win the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympics, 46 years after the tragic Summer Games which saw 11 members of the Israeli team murdered by a Palestinian group, according to a senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) member.
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The Olympic flag flies at half-mast in memory of the Israeli athletes that were killed by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Olympic Games in this file photo. [Agencies]
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The IOC member said that while the Korean resort of Pyeongchang will be bidding for a third successive time - having narrowly lost to Vancouver and then the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi for the 2010 and 2014 Games - the sheer force of IOC vice president Thomas Bach could swing it for Munich.
"Pyeongchang bidding for a third time is a big gamble as the selling point of bringing peace to the peninsula (between North and South Korea) will start to sound a bit like a stuck record," he said.
"However, on their side Europe will have hosted it in 2014, but with China thinking of launching a bid they may not even end up as Asia's leading bidder."
"Asia, though, does only have a limited amount of places where the Winter Games can be hosted, and Pyeongchang definitely is one of them."
However, the IOC member believed that the fact Sochi will be hosting the Games in Europe in 2014 could be overridden by Bach's lobbying for Munich even if Swiss city Geneva decides to enter the race as it has suggested it will depending on popular reaction.
"Thomas Bach is a very smart operator," he said.
"He is a top lawyer (whose skills were honed at Adidas) and a very good personality."
"Also he will want to bring Munich the Games to cement his image as being the favourite to replace Jacques Rogge as IOC president in 2013."
Rogge himself has welcomed the Munich bid, which if successful would make it the first city to host both the summer and winter Games.
"Naturally, I am very pleased to have such a strong and competent bid from Munich in a strong sporting nation such as Germany," Rogge told the December 23 edition of German newspaper Die Welt.
"Germany has a good vision, and it learned from the failure of Leipzig and strengthened its bid."
In recent years, Germany has twice missed out on hosting summer Olympic games when Berlin was beaten by Sydney for the right to host the 2000 event while Leipzig was beaten by London for the 2012 tournament.
But the 65-year-old Belgian says Munich will not be disadvantaged by not being a capital city.
"We look at the cities with potential, that radiate enthusiasm - much like Munich."
Munich's bid proposes that the 2018 Winter Olympics be spread across three sites.
Munich would host the ice events including figure-skating and ice hockey, while Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics, would stage the snow events.
And the luge, bobsleigh and skeleton events would be entrusted to Schoenau.
The decision on who hosts the 2018 games will be made in 2011.
