Paris or London to stage 2012 Olympics
By Paul Radford
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Paris or London will host the 2012Olympics after Moscow, New York and Madrid were eliminated invoting by International Olympic Committee members on Wednesday.
The final decision will be announced by IOC presidentJacques Rogge in a globally televised ceremony starting at 1130GMT.
A fourth and final round of voting was taken but theverdict will be kept a closely guarded secret until theofficial announcement.
The fact that four rounds of voting were held indicated aclose fight. Paris started the session as marginal favoriteswith London considered their closest challengers.
Under the IOC voting system, a winner is not declared untilone candidate city wins a majority of votes. If not, the lowestranked candidate in each round is eliminated.
POLITICAL HEAVYWEIGHTS
Moscow were eliminated in the first round of voting, NewYork in the second and Madrid in the third. No voting figureswere given.
Earlier the five cities all had their hour in the spotlightbefore the IOC session.
Paris and London both sent their political heavyweights toSingapore to help turn the vote in their favor.
French president Jacques Chirac took part in the Frenchpresentation in person to make an impassioned plea to the IOC.”The heart of Paris and the heart of France are beating inunison in the hope of becoming Olympic ground in 2012.
“Dear friends … I shall vouch for this. You can put yourtrust in France, you can trust the French, you can trust us,”he said.
Chirac flew off immediately afterwards to join the G8summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, hosted by British PrimeMinister Tony Blair who spent two days in Singapore promotingthe London bid.
Blair left for home late on Tuesday after attending theformal opening of the IOC session. He and Chirac, at odds overboth political and rival candidature issues in recent times,were seen shaking hands amicably at the post-opening party.
Blair made his pitch in a video clip. “Our vision is to seemillions of young people participate in sport and improve theirlives,” he said. “London has the power to make this happen.”