NON!
Posted on 07/06/2005 5:05:25 AM PDT by Aussie Dasher
LONDON has been awarded the 2012 Olympic Games after the most bitterly fought bid battle in Olympic history.
The London team beat out long-time favourites Paris as well as Madrid, Moscow and New York to win the race to stage the lucrative sports extravaganza. International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge announced the winner at a globally televised ceremony after a day of presentations and deliberations at the IOC session in Singapore's Raffles City complex.
The news was greeted by screams of joy from the London team.
The 2008 Olympics will be held in Beijing.
Earlier in Singapore, the cities gave hour-long presentations in a bid to sure up support for their respective cities.
Paris, widely regarded as the favourite, appeared more relieved than jubilant at the end of the opening presentation which featured a film by director Luc Besson stressing the romantic nature of the French capital.
French President Jacques Chirac appeared in person to make an impassioned plea to the IOC.
"The heart of Paris and the heart of France are beating in unison in the hope of becoming Olympic ground in 2012.
"Dear friends ... I shall vouch for this. You can put your trust in France, you can trust the French, you can trust us," he said.
Chirac was due to fly off immediately afterwards to join the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, hosted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair who spent two days in Singapore promoting the London bid.
Blair left late on Tuesday after attending the formal opening of the IOC session. He and Chirac, at odds over both political and rival candidature issues in recent times, were seen shaking hands amicably at the post-opening party.
New York declared it would win before the day's proceedings even started and were congratulating themselves later on their presentation which focussed on the vibrancy, ethnic diversity and never-give-up attitude of the citizens of the 'city that never sleeps'.
Former First Lady, Senator Hillary Clinton told a news conference after the US presentation: "We have a great sense of pride and relief about how well this went today."
But it seems it wasn't to be, with the city eliminated in early round voting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking publicly in English for the first time, told IOC members to vote for the city which bridges European and Asian cultures.
"This is a time when our country, having come through deep economic transformations, has ever-increasing possibilities," he said.
But pre-meeting gossip in the luxury hotels of the Raffles City complex where the vote takes place suggested Paris remained marginal favourites, ahead of London, Madrid, New York and Moscow.
The evaluation commission, which reports just before the vote, rated Paris and London's bid as of "very high quality" with Madrid and New York assessed as of "high quality" a month ago.
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Not the bit about how France can be trusted...LOL!!!
As long as it isn't paris.
When I consider Chirac's comments regarding the British (their food, etc), I have to laugh.
Personally, this whole Olympics deal is more of a nuisance. I don't question the short term prestige, but what good does it do for the city in the long term? They end up with facilities that go unused, and have to be maintained at taxpayers expense. I am not any more likely to go to Atlanta, Los Angeles, or Lake Placid than I would have been otherwise.
On a sidenote: Whatever happened to the World's Fair? When I was young, I think it was in Tennessee, but it was so long ago, I can't remember. Is it as big a deal as they made it out to be then? I never hear about it anymore.
Hey, there's something screwy here. Its only 2005.
How can London win the Olympics?
Did they win all the events or just a majority?
Didn't the US win at least 1? Our typical 14 year old female gymnasts are ony 7 years old right now. How can they be judged?
I would have expected this kind of corruption in maybe Russia or China. And most definetly France. But I wouldn't expect it from Great Britain.
Food fight this Chirac!
Check this out: Expo Museum
Pooooooor Frahnce! And it looks like Hillary's visit to talk with the Olympic Committee made no diff either.
Hillary & Bloomberg is never a winning team.
As for Chirac...suffer in your jocks, you Frog Assh*le!!! LOL!!!ROTFLMAO!!!!!!
Anything that causes France discomfort, I am all in favor of. I'm just thrilled that the Hillary/Doctoroff group got squashed. OUT.
NON!
Congrats to the UK. Frankly, I can tell you none of us in NYC wanted it anyway. What a pain in the ass.
France would have experienced more discomfort if she had won the bid. Only one (if I recall correctly) site has made a "profit" on the Olympics - virtually every city that hosts this political orgy loses tons of money. Now that would be just desserts for France!
Now if only one could get the Frogs to pay for it...
Thanks for the link.
It's strange that they don't have it on a regular schedule, for instance every four years (like the Olympics).
Worked at Expo '67 in Montreal; one of the better World's Fair, at least in my opinion. In spite of higher than expected attendance at Expo '67 it was a loss financially for the city of Montreal. That has been the experience of any city hosting a World's Fair. Aside from the prestige aspect, which has diminished greatly over the years, hosting the World's Fair isn't worth the trouble and expense. Fewer cities are interested; countries and corporate entities willing to sponsor a pavilion at a World's Fair have declined ... which means they are now much smaller.
With a World's Fair like this, no wonder it's inspired the world!
.............................
Nagakute & Seto, Japan
Opening:
25 March 2005
Closing
25 September 2005
Theme:
"Nature's Wisdom"
Sub-themes:
"Nature's Matrix"
"Art of life"
"Development for Eco-Communities"
Projected attendance:
over 15 million
With the English capital reportedly just behind Paris in the race to host the 2012 Olympic Games, French President Jacques Chirac's derogatory remarks about British cuisine were rather ill-timed.Chirac has become an obnoxious caricature of himself. Why did he irk the Finnish members of the Olympic committee with such crass remarks?Just 24 hours before today's 117th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session, French newspaper Liberation quoted Chirac as saying, "One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad. The only thing they have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease."
"After Finland, it is the country with the worst food," added Chirac, who arrived here Tuesday.
That's something that I will say when I'm drunk, but not something that a European President should say in a fancy banquet surrounded by world leaders.
My family went to both the New York World's Fair and Expo '67. I was in fifth and seventh grades, respectively and both were wonderful experiences! It was during this time that my love for science was developing and how those two venues fed my imagination! (I also liked Rene Simard's rendition of "Welcome to Montreal" when the Olympics were hosted there.)
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