Madrid 2020 countdown: Ana Botella's blunder with English goes viral

Ana Botella (PP), wife of former Spanish president José María Aznar, was asked in English by the International Olympic Committee (COI) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, whether she thought it was sensible policy on Spain's part to attempt to host the Games when the country was suffering under the weight of enforced austerity measures and crippled with unemployment at 27 per cent.

Botella, whose English is very elementary, had decided to 'make a good impression' by not putting on her simultaneous interpretation headphones and showing the Committee that she spoke an international language.

As a result, the mayoress completely misunderstood the question and replied that Madrid 'had 90 per cent of the infrastructure in place', which was of 'excellent quality', and that 'this could be a new way of becoming candidates', as a 'city with 80 per cent of the infrastructures already built'.

The fact she gave two different figures for the percentage of infrastructure up and running did not go unnoticed by the international media.

President of the Spanish Olympic Committee Alejandro Blanco, sitting next to Ana during the interview, whispered to her, “do you want me to answer? Because he asked you about unemployment.”

But by that time, the reporter had moved onto the next question.

A video of the incident has received numerous hits by bemused Spaniards, and is accompanied by another in which she stumbles badly whilst reading out a candidature speech in English back in March this year.

The city chosen to host the 2020 Olympics will be announced at 22.30hrs on Saturday (September 7) on live TV.

Spain's media suggests that 50 of the 98 COI members due to vote on the final candidate intend to vote for Madrid.

Tokyo and Istanbul are also in the running.