“Even if the decision of the IOC Members did not fall in favour of Salzburg 2014, I want to emphasise that the Salzburg bid for the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games was very highly regarded,” declared Dr Wallner. “I received confirmation of this from numerous high-ranking sports officials after the vote. The decision to stage the Games in Sochi is a landmark decision, and we must accept this. The board of directors of the Austrian Olympic Committee will decide in the autumn whether or not Austria will make another bid for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games; the Salzburg district council has already ruled out the possibility of Salzburg making a further bid.”

Despite the disappointing result, Gernot Leitner was also optimistic in his summary: “It goes without saying that we had hoped to bring the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to Salzburg, and thus to ensure positive, lasting social and economic benefits for the Olympic region. However, the application phase itself has been very productive for the Salzburg region - in the short period between the 1st and the 6th of July, more than 10,000 articles were published in the international media, and these clearly established Salzburg’s position as a destination for Alpine tourism. In addition, the Salzburg bid was given over 1000 minutes of international television time. The advertising value of the news coverage alone will far exceed the costs of the candidature. The infrastructure measures put into place, which would have been necessary in order to stage the Olympic Games, were also a bonus for the region. These have either already been implemented, or if not, will still go ahead (as is the case for the men’s downhill run in Flachauwinkl) despite the negative decision in Guatemala.”

Together with the Executive Directors of Salzburg 2014, Rudolf Höller and Gernot Leitner, forty internal and external employees cooperated on the Salzburg bid for the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and twenty-one of these had full-time contracts. One-hundred and twenty experts were involved in presentations and trips to venues during the visit of the IOC Evaluation Committee. Over the course of the two-year application phase, Salzburg 2014 was promoted at forty-three international events, and over one-hundred national events.