Did London win or Paris lose the 2012 Olympics?

By Paul Radford

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – London’s surprised elation at winning
the 2012 Olympics and Paris’s stunned silence were a marked
contrast which left open the question: did London win or did
strong favorites Paris lose?

The arguments following International Olympic Committee
(IOC) President Jacques Rogge’s announcement on Wednesday that
London had won the IOC vote were still reverberating around the
IOC session on Thursday.

Paris had come to Singapore as odds-on favorites to win the
Olympics at their third attempt in 20 years. Even British bid
officials were admitting at London’s victory party in the early
hours of Thursday morning that they thought Rogge would be
reading out the name of the French capital.

London won the final vote instead by a mere four votes,
54-50.

IOC members pointed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s
charm offensive for two days in Singapore just before the vote
and bid leader Sebastian Coe’s polished and passionate
presentation as two vital factors in London’s triumph.

But as many were pondering how Paris contrived to snatch
defeat from the jaws of victory and many criticized what they
perceived as French paralysis in Singapore with little or no
lobbying of members and an uninspired presentation to the IOC.

Henri Serandour, the French Olympic chief, took personal
responsibility. “Maybe I was a little too easy-going,” he said.
“Maybe we need a new generation of leaders who will take a
stronger line.”

National stereotypes appeared to have gone into reverse in
Singapore with the British bid team pitching aggressively and
the French responding phlegmatically.

When two London bid delegates criticized the Paris
showpiece stadium, le Stade de France, as not ideal for
athletics, they seemed to be straying dangerously close to the
edge of IOC guidelines which demand that other teams’ bids and
facilities should not be the target of attacks.

GALLIC SHRUG

But Paris gave a Gallic shrug, filed no complaint and the
IOC were given no reason to do anything except look the other
way.

French President Jacques Chirac breezed into Singapore to
play a major role in the Paris presentation but, almost
loftily, declined to imitate Blair and sought no one-on-one
meetings with voting members.

Irish IOC member Pat Hickey said: “This is down to Tony
Blair. If he hadn’t come, I’d say that six to eight votes would
have been lost…Chirac came far too late”

Thomas Bach of Germany thought Coe had also swung it.
“Sebastian Coe was absolutely superb,” he said. “His
presentation to IOC members was key, I am sure. I am convinced
it made the difference because there were many members who
arrived in Singapore undecided.”

Coe himself thought the vision of a Games for the youth of
the world and the passion and teamwork of the London bid had
turned the vote around.

He said the IOC evaluation commission’s preliminary report
last year had made London think hard and change their approach
substantially.

“It was a big moment for us,” he said. “We had to seize the
moment. There were issues we needed to improve on. We had to
understand it very quickly and we had till yesterday to get it
right.”

Paris, by contrast, seemed determined to stay in front by
simply avoiding mistakes, which left the team vulnerable to
little gaffes, such as Chirac’s reported off-the-cuff remarks
denigrating British and Finnish cooking.

“That delivered us two Finnish delegate votes,” laughed
London mayor Ken Livingstone.