2012 Games: Down to Five

The competition for the 2012 Summer Games was cut Tuesday from nine cities to five: New York, Paris, London, Madrid and Moscow.

The International Olympic Committee’s policy-making executive board cut Rio de Janeiro, Havana, Istanbul, Turkey, and Leipzig, Germany, following the recommendations of an internal report that said those cities didn’t measure up.

The IOC will pick the winner at an all-delegates session in Singapore on July 6, 2005. Paris emerged as the front-runner, ranking first overall in the various so-called technical measures, including security and transport capabilities, that formed the basis of the report.

But Philippe Baudillon, the Paris 2012 chief executive, said, “Nobody is first,” adding, “It’s a great victory for the IOC. Five major countries. Five major cities. They will have l’embarras du choix,” which roughly translates to “embarrassment of choices.”

Tuesday’s action sets the stage for a 14-month campaign in which politics and perception can play roles as important as the number of hotel rooms a city can offer.

The IOC is dominated by Europeans, and the vote for the 2012 Games will be bracketed by two editions of the Games, both in Europe -- the Summer Games in Athens in 2004, the Winter Games in Turin, Italy, in 2006.

Yet there is a perception, expressed by some influential IOC members, that the 2012 Games are Europe’s due -- after the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing and the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

The United States has played host to the Games four times over the last 20 years -- Winter Games in Lake Placid in 1980 and Salt Lake City in 2002, and Summer Games in Los Angeles in 1984 and Atlanta in 1996. That’s more than any other nation in recent years.

New York has never played host to the Games. But the New York bid is running into ill will linked to the U.S.-led war on Iraq and difficulties in obtaining visas to enter the United States. Certain to be a factor is lingering anti-American sentiment in the IOC. It surfaces repeatedly, as it did Tuesday in the technical report.

No mention was made of the success of the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Instead, the report said, “Recent Olympic Summer Games experience in the United States, particularly the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, was also noted.”

Within the IOC, those Games are still “noted” for technology, transport and security shortcomings.

New York ranked fourth in Tuesday’s report, behind Paris, Madrid and London. But the grades were close, and the report stressed that the IOC evaluation resulted in a “high level of confidence” that New York, Paris London and Madrid had “the capability” to host the Games.

Moscow’s capabilities, it said, were “less certain.”

Another technical evaluation of the candidates will be conducted in May 2005.

Technical grades, however, are the equivalent of freshman English or math courses in a U.S. college -- a prerequisite for the more challenging work to come. Moving past the technical phase gives a city the chance to tell its story, which could be a plus for New York.

Meanwhile, New York as an underdog could well prove beneficial in the long run, giving New York bid chief Daniel Doctoroff the opportunity to quietly build influential relationships.

New York, he said, offered the Olympic movement a “compelling proposition.” Paris played host to the world track and field championships last summer and soccer’s World Cup in 1998, both successes. The IOC has a penchant for rewarding cities that lose but keep bidding -- Athens got the 2004 Games after losing a bid for the 1996 Games -- and Paris lost out for 2008 as well as for 1992. The 1992 Summer Games went to Barcelona, Spain.

“We have listened carefully to the reaction of the Olympic family to those [losing] bids,” Baudillon said. “We have listened and learned.”

Paris staged the 1900 and 1924 Games.

London served as host in 1908 and 1948. The London bid relies heavily on famed sports venues and tourist draws -- tennis, for instance, at Wimbledon.

“I believe ultimately London will stage Games that ... will really knock the socks off everyone,” said Barbara Cassani, London’s bid chief.

Moscow played host to the 1980 Summer Games, which many Americans know little about. The U.S. boycotted those Games in response to the former Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

The Soviet Union, of course, has given way to Russia, and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said 2012 Games in Moscow “would offer us the chance to show the world the new Russia.”

An issue, perhaps, for Madrid: Barcelona.

“It would be exceptional for Spain to get two editions of the Games in 20 years,” said Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., an IOC member and son of the former IOC president.

“But it is also exceptional that one of the great capitals of Europe has never organized the Olympic Games,” added the younger Samaranch, who lives in Madrid.