On the final day of campaigning to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, Madrid said Friday that its low-budget vision would become a model for future Games and Tokyo said its safety and certainty were positives after problems in Sochi and Rio de Janeiro.


Madrid began the three cities' final push ahead of Saturday's International Olympic Committee vote. Istanbul was scheduled to hold a news conference later Friday. The IOC will also vote on a new president and a new Olympic sport this weekend.



"We believe that having a responsible budget represents the new way to understand the games," Madrid Mayor Ana Botella said. "We believe that it's a new model to organize the games at a time marked by political and economic turbulence around the world."


Spain's economic struggles, highlighted by a 27 per cent unemployment rate, have been seen as the main weakness of Madrid's bid heading into the IOC meetings.


Madrid officials have been trying to assure IOC members that the economic problems don't pose a significant challenge for the Games and that having a proposal based on economic austerity is something positive for the future of the Olympic movement.


"We are proposing a new model of Games which are adjusted to the current times," Botella said. "We believe that having this type of budget is something really good for the future, because otherwise there would be many cities in the world which would not be capable of hosting the Games."


Madrid, in its third straight attempt to host the Summer Games, claims that it has one of the lowest Olympic budgets ever, with 80 per cent of venues already in place in a compact layout.


"We are trying to show that our candidacy is adjusting to what the Olympic movement wants," Madrid bid leader Alejandro Blanco said.


Costs soar in Sochi


The 2014 Sochi Games in Russia will be the most expensive in Olympic history, and the 2016 Rio Games have also been seen as an expensive endeavour for Brazil.


"We have a new model of Games which could become the norm in the world that we live now," Botella said.


Tokyo bid organizers gave the clearest explanation so far of the radioactive water leak at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.


Hiroshi Hase, a former Olympic wrestler and member of the Japanese parliament, minimized the problem with a detailed presentation — a strategy that has been lacking for several days as Japanese officials struggled with the subject.


"It is a fact," he said. "There is a very limited area where contaminated water is leaking out in the port. ... But we will monitor it, remove it and contain it. That is the gist of the strategy."


Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose, who has been photographed on his daily jogging runs in Buenos Aires, said the Tokyo campaign "was building momentum."


"We are thrilled that the time has come at last," he said. "I believe we have been able to impress the IOC members that we are the best partners to host a superb Games with safety and certainty."


Asked if he was ready to lead the presentation on Saturday to the IOC, he replied: "I feel just like an Olympian. I feel like an athlete before going into an arena."