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.
The World's Fairs were mostly corporate sponsored exhibitions, much like the Epcot center at Disney World. If you've seen one, you've seen them all, just updated.
French basketball star Tony Parker of France:
``I don't know what else we could have done. If we don't have it now, I guess we will never get it.Former Olympic judo gold medalist Thierry Rey:``The IOC seems to be very pro-Anglo-Saxon. I feel extremely gutted.''
``This is an enormous disappointment, we don't understand what is happening, this is a massive slap in the face''Stephane Diagana, former European champion at 400metre hurdles:
``This is a huge disappointment, we really thought it was a good sign to face London in the final because the votes that had gone to New York were smaller than those who went to Madrid.``But we thought wrongly."
On a commercial flight the approach to Kennedy (Idlewild) led us over the NY World's Fair on the day it opened April 21, 1964. It was clear day and I was sitting on the side of the aircraft with the best view of the site. I didn't have the opportunity to visit that World's Fair however. As I mentioned in my earlier post I worked at Expo '67 and a number of years later, in 1986, attended the World's Fair in Vancouver, BC.
Remember: during the Olympics themselves, it is all about athletes, not nationalities. No country "wins" the Olympics, and there are no prizes to the countries with the most medals.
In theory...
I guess they decided the food in London is better. London has great restaurants - great Indian and other far Eastern food, better French restaurants than in France, great Italian restaurants - you don't have to have English food if you don't like it, so Chirac's remark made him sound like a hick who's never been out of France.
And by the way, how many Republics and other types of government has France had since the Revolution? (A stable form of government is more pertinent as to which country you can "trust" more.)
I had to laugh when I read Chirac's comments.
We can always 'trust' France, alright. Trust them to be the weasel, jelly-backed surrender monkeys of the world!
Was it Los Angeles in 1984?
I see France
I see Chirac
Crapping in his pants.
That sounds right - but I don't follow this event close enough to know for sure. Some of the sports are great, but many of them are pandering to people who want to be athletes and can't cut it and the whole shooting match is politics from start to finish.
im glad the frogs lost.they can be trusted?Is chirac nuts?i wouldnt trust a frog as far as i could throw them hooray for England!
That's where he lost it, right there. The minute he said that they knew that everything he said was a lie.
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