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London wins right to host 2012 Olympics
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-06 19:56
London won the right to host the 2012 Olympics in a vote by the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) pipping arch-rivals Paris in a dramatic finale.
London won the right to host the 2012 Summer
Olympic Games after a vote by IOC members in Singapore on July 6, 2005,
beating out Paris, New York City, Madrid and Moscow.
[Reuters] |
The announcement was made by IOC
chief Jacques Rogge.
The British capital will become the first city to stage the Olympics for a
third time after holding them in 1908 and 1948.
People react after London was awarded the 2012
Olympics, in the Paris townhall, Wednesday July 6, 2005.
[AP] |
Paris has now failed with three successive bids for the Games of 1992, 2008
and 2012.
Moscow was the first to fall in the opening round of voting by around 100 IOC
members, followed by New York and Madrid in the second and third rounds.
That left the two favourites, Paris and London, to battle it out for the
supreme spoils in sports and London won the day.
Beijing hosts the next Games in 2008.
London will become the first city to stage the Olympics for a third time
after overhauling long-standing favourites Paris in the home stretch.
Nine cities, making multi-million dollar bids, started the race for the 2012
Games 19 months ago.
It was the biggest field of Olympic candidates after the 1997 vote for the
2004 Games when 10 cities went into the ring against eventual winners Athens.
Rio de Janeiro, Leipzig, Havana and Istanbul were the first to be eliminated
last year.
Istanbul had been making its fourth consecutive bid while Rio had been hoping
to become the first South American city to stage the Games.
Paris, which hosted the Games in 1900 and 1924, had been the front-runner
from the start. The IOC has never rejected three consecutive bids from a
considered front-runner.
Athens, humiliated by Atlanta when it tried to win the right to stage the
1996 centenary Games, finally won approval in 1997 for the 2004 Games when it
beat off a strong bid from Rome.
London, well behind in the IOC's early reports, and embarrassed by having to
withdraw an enticement to the 10,500 athletes and team officials of free flights
to London, free phone calls and free British train travel, made up ground
quickly in the last few months.
New York's bid appeared doomed when they failed to win approval for a two
billion-dollar Olympic stadium on Manhattan's West Side.
But within days bid leader Dan Doctoroff announced a deal had been struck
with the New York Mets baseball team to have the stadium built in Queens.
But the 2012 Games were always thought to have a stronger chance of being
awarded to Europe than North America as the 2010 Winter Olympics will be staged
in Vancouver, Canada.
London was finally persuaded to mount a challenge after Birmingham (twice)
and Manchester had failed in bids for previous Games.
It was the city's first bid. In 1908 and 1948 London stepped in to hold the
Games at the request of the International Olympic Committee.
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