2012 Games vote will be close
Associated PressParis, London are frontrunners, but New York has an outside chance in today's vote.
Published July 6, 2005
SINGAPORE - A return to Paris for the first time since 1924? Back to London after more than half a century? A first for the Big Apple? Another fiesta in Spain? A reward for the new Russia?
After all the global campaigning, furious lobbying and last-minute pitches by world leaders and sports celebrities, the most glamorous and hotly contested Olympic bid race in history will be decided today when the International Olympic Committee chooses among Paris, London, New York, Madrid and Moscow to be the host city for the 2012 Summer Games.
Paris, the longtime front-runner, goes in as the perceived favorite with London a strong challenger. New York and Madrid would be surprise winners, while Moscow is a long shot.
But IOC members said the race remains tight, wide open and impossible to call. Much could depend on the impact of the bid cities' final presentations and the vagaries of the round-by-round secret voting procedure.
IOC president Jacques Rogge said the vote could be similar to 1993, when Sydney defeated Beijing 45-43 in the final round to land the 2000 Olympics. He even raised the possibility of a tie vote.
"The most intriguing thing will be if I have to give the deciding vote," Rogge told the Associated Press. The IOC president only votes in case of a deadlock.
The result could hinge not so much on the technical merits of the bids but on less tangible factors such as politics, emotion and self-interest among the 100 or so IOC members.
Paris is bidding for the third time in 20 years after losing the 1992 and 2008 Olympics - and the IOC tends to reward persistence. The French capital has a ready-to-go Olympic stadium in the Stade de France and embraces the IOC's blueprint for controlling the size and cost of the games.
London, which last held the games in 1948, portrays itself as the city on the move - timing its finish in the mold of the last-lap kicks of bid leader and two-time Olympic 1,500-meter champion Sebastian Coe. The British bid is centered on the massive urban renewal of a dilapidated area of East London.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton flew in Tuesday to join Muhammad Ali as high-profile boosters of New York's bid, which won the approval of the IOC executive board for its new stadium plans. Last month, a state board rejected a proposed stadium in Manhattan, and New York officials quickly devised plans for a stadium in Queens.
"Nervous, excited, optimistic," New York bid leader Dan Doctoroff said as the vote approached. "Our delegation has done a fabulous job of reinforcing our message to the IOC members. I think it's anybody's ballgame. I think it's very fluid."'
Madrid, the wild card of the race, benefits from the lobbying efforts of former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch and the strong royal links with King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. But Madrid could be hindered by the fact Spain held the Olympics in 1992 in Barcelona.
Moscow, which hosted the games in 1980, contends the 2012 Games would accelerate democracy and change in post-Soviet Russia. President Vladimir Putin will speak publicly in English for the first time in a taped video message as part of Moscow's presentation.
The election procedure could cause surprises. Voting goes round by round until one city obtains a majority. A first-round win is considered unlikely. The city receiving the fewest votes drops out after each round, so the maximum would be four rounds.