BMW Group supports Munich's bid to host the 2018 Olympic Winter Games

"Munich and the BMW Group are inextricably linked. Sport lies at the heart of our identity and at the heart of the BMW brand. We want to play our part in bringing together sportsmen and women from around the world to compete fairly against each other here in our home city in 2018.

"As the global automotive leader in the area of sustainability, we are promoting and supporting the idea of a sustainable Olympic Winter Games in Munich in 2018. If the Olympic Games come to our city, we want to be part of them," said BMW Group Chairman Dr Norbert Reithofer at a press conference at BMW Welt in Munich on Thursday. The bid will also benefit from the company's extensive experience in the field of mobility concepts.

"We see the bid as a long-term investment in the future, aimed at creating the values of tomorrow. The acceptance of social responsibility is an inseparable part of our corporate self-image. In its role as a corporate citizen with customers and employees throughout the world, the BMW Group supports international understanding and cross-cultural exchange," Reithofer continued.

The BMW Group will be contributing a total of three to five million euros to the 2009 to 2011 application phase. This includes non-cash contributions such as the provision of vehicles, for example.

The Prime Minister of the State of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer, said: "I'm delighted that BMW, a flagship business of Munich and Bavaria with an international reputation, is giving its backing to Munich's bid for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. I would like to thank BMW Chairman Dr Reithofer personally for the company's substantial contribution towards the bid both financially and in other forms."

"In order to bring the 2018 Olympic Winter Games to Munich we need support on a national level, but also the backing and clear endorsement of important players here in the city. Through its tremendous support, BMW is once again showing its willingness to take on social responsibility. With sport, politics, industry and the public all pulling in the same direction, we have every chance of welcoming the 2018 Olympic Winter Games to Munich."

Should Munich – together with the sporting facilities in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Berchtesgadener Land region – get the vote from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in July 2011, the scene would be set for another chapter in Olympic history.

Never before has a city hosted both the Olympic Summer Games and Winter Games. The BMW Group also played its part in the 20th Summer Games in Munich in 1972, supplying an electrically-powered BMW 1602 for the marathon and walking events.

Dr Thomas Bach, President of the German Olympic Committee (DOSB), was equally ebullient: "Munich is inextricably linked with the Olympic Games. The Summer Games of 1972 played a key role in the city's development into the 'Weltstadt mit Herz' (world city with a heart). Many people all over the world still have marvellous memories of the Games, and those not yet born at the time would have heard only positive accounts."

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Credits: JRC