Visit to 2006 Olympic site shows progress

TURIN, Italy (AP) -- A two-day visit to the site of the 2006 Winter Olympics left the IOC Coordination Commission mostly satisfied with the progress the city has made in preparing for the games.
"The biggest challenges for the organizers are those of meeting the venue and road construction deadlines," commission chairman Jean Claude Killy said Friday. "The commission is fully confident that the organizers will be able to rise to those challenges."
Killy singled out the progress made in marketing, transportation and housing projects, which had been characterized as weak a year ago.
Construction sites
Valentino Castellani, former Turin mayor and now president of the local Olympic organizing committee, said 30 percent of the construction sites have been opened this year, with work on the rest of the major sites set to start by September.
Castellani said the only state road in need of major improvements was the one from Pinerolo to Pragelato and Sestriere, the resorts in the western Alps that will host Alpine skiing, ski jumping and cross-country skiing.
Killy mentioned that work on the bobsled venue in Cesana is behind schedule. He suggested doubling the number of workers so the November 2004 deadline can be met.