London’s Late Push Wins 2012 Olympics

For months, Paris was seen as the favorite to land the 2012 Summer Olympics, pushing a bid built on low-key humility, persistence and, in the words of French skiing icon Jean-Claude Killy, the promise of a “magical encounter.”

But in London, organizers had maintained in recent weeks that the momentum was theirs, backed by the persuasive politicking of Prime Minister Tony Blair and the leadership of campaign chief Sebastian Coe, an Olympic legend who came to the rescue of a troubled campaign 14 months ago.

On Wednesday, in a stunning upset, London narrowly outpolled Paris to receive the International Olympic Committee’s nod for 2012.

The 54-50 vote on the fourth ballot sent khaki-suited British boosters at the Raffles City Convention Center into a frenzy, and left the French delegation puzzled and disheartened. New York’s hope of securing the Games as a capstone to its post-Sept. 11 resurgence ended two rounds earlier. The other also-rans were Moscow and Madrid.

“It’s a momentous day for London,” Blair told reporters at the G-8 summit in Scotland. “This will pay dividends for all of us. It will regenerate parts of east London. I couldn’t bear to watch the final bit of it.”

Olympic delegates said Blair’s three-day lobbying blitz here, which included one-on-one meetings with 30 IOC members, made the difference. “If he hadn’t come here, Paris would have been the winners,” said IOC member Pat Hickey of Ireland.

London will be the first three-time host, having staged the Games in 1908 and 1948. New York officials said it was too early to say whether their city would try again. In Los Angeles, which has bid 12 times for the Games and been selected twice, in 1932 and 1984, organizers suggested they might seek the 2016 Olympics.

“We’re terribly disappointed it wasn’t us but, you know, we have no regrets,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said after a presentation that alluded to the city’s resolve after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Thousands of Londoners gathered in Trafalgar Square erupted when the selection was announced. “I’m shocked,” said Nicky Burford, 32, of London. “We never win anything.”

In France, the sense of letdown was widely felt. A crowd of 10,000 people had gathered at the Paris City Hall plaza to await the expected anointing of their city, only to stare silently at the video screens when the vote was announced. “I think what made us lose is that we played fair,” said Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe. Other French officials criticized the British lobbying effort.

Everyday New Yorkers seemed to take the matter in stride. “I’m not overly disappointed,” Chris Lee, 35, of Queens told Associated Press. “Native New Yorkers don’t tend to like these things that disrupt their routine. But I think they should try again for 2016.”

The day here began with presentations by the five finalists. New York’s program included a film clip that wordlessly evoked the city’s post-attack resilience by following runners carrying an Olympic-style torch through the streets.

One runner passed a sign posted on a chain-link fence that read, “The sky was so blue.” As it followed the torch, the camera panned across Lower Manhattan, capturing the empty sky where the World Trade Center towers had stood. As the film wrapped up, the image of the runner’s flame appeared to join with the Statue of Liberty’s torch.

“I don’t often have a lump in my throat,” said IOC member R. Kevan Gosper of Australia. “I had a lump in my throat.”

On the first ballot, London received 22 votes, followed by Paris with 21, Madrid with 20 and New York with 19. Moscow, with 15, was eliminated. The city with the fewest votes total in each round is eliminated; voting continues until one city gains a majority. Members cannot vote if their country’s candidate is still in contention.

Madrid, pushed by former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, picked up almost all of Moscow’s votes in the second round -- votes that New York had thought might go its way.

Samaranch, however, has long-standing ties to Moscow, having served as Spain’s ambassador to the former Soviet Union. He was elected IOC president there in 1980, and in 2001, during his final session in that office, the Bolshoi Ballet performed “Giselle,” his favorite.

Madrid shot to the lead with 32 votes. London dropped to second place with 27, Paris to third with 25.

“If we could have gotten past that second round -- we always felt that second round was the key one -- then we had a lot of third-round commitments,” said Bob Ctvrtlik, an American IOC member from Newport Beach. “We just didn’t make it. Samaranch was real tough. He was putting a lot of pressure on people at the end.”

IOC members said New York also was hurt by the collapse last month of a plan to build a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan. New York officials quickly regrouped, planning a new stadium in Queens that also would be the home of the New York Mets.

But the damage was done. “The stadium plan really made it difficult -- coming at the time it did,” IOC member John Coates of Australia said.

Coates also said that 2012 in New York simply would have been “too close” in time to the Atlanta Games in 1996. The U.S. staged the Games in Salt Lake in 2002, in Atlanta, in Los Angeles in 1984 and in Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1980.

“In my heart of hearts,” said the senior U.S. IOC member, Anita DeFrantz of Los Angeles, the outcome “was because we’ve hosted four Games over 25 years.”

In the third round, most of the New York votes went to London, which climbed back into the lead with 39. Paris moved to second, at 33. Madrid dropped to 31, and out.

In the final ballot came a split in the Madrid votes -- and, just as London organizers had been calling it, a narrow victory.

London’s bid calls for $15.8 billion in infrastructure improvements and the construction in the city’s East End of an Olympic park much like the one at the 2000 Games in Sydney.

Fourteen months ago, London was criticized in a preliminary IOC report that cited transportation and other concerns. The leader of the campaign, American businesswoman Barbara Cassani, then stepped aside in favor of Coe -- and the turnaround began.

Coe, one of the greatest middle-distance runners ever and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, told the IOC how grainy, black-and-white images from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City had inspired him as a 12-year-old. The London 2012 bid, he said, was designed to have the same effect on today’s young people.

“This was a committee led by a former gold medalist in an eloquent way,” said IOC member Arne Ljungqvist of Sweden.

Blair and his wife, Cherie, spent nearly three days in Singapore lobbying. Though Blair had to leave for Scotland before Wednesday’s presentations, his early arrival -- especially compared with that of French President Jacques Chirac -- was not lost on Ireland’s Hickey and others.

“There’s not a doubt in my mind Chirac came in too late last night and he didn’t press the flesh,” Hickey said. “The same can be said of [U.S. Sen.] Hillary Clinton,” who arrived Tuesday and stayed to take part in New York’s presentation.

Paris, which was the host city in 1900 and 1924, bid unsuccessfully for the 1992 and 2008 Games.

“I don’t know exactly why the IOC members don’t understand us,” said French sports minister Jean-Francois Lamour, a fencer and Olympic gold medalist. “This is our third time. We improved our bid every time. We speak with heart, with determination, with passion about our concept.... I don’t know why they don’t understand us.”

A fourth Paris bid anytime soon seems improbable. So, too, does another New York effort for 2016.

Bloomberg told the IOC assembly, “Some of you have asked me whether 2012 is the right time for New York. Let me be very clear: 2012 is the only time for New York.”

Afterward, he told reporters, “It was a unique opportunity for us.... I don’t know what’s going to happen down the road.”

Peter Ueberroth, chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and Jim Scherr, the organization’s chief executive, praised both Bloomberg and New York bid chief Dan Doctoroff. Ueberroth called them “two great horses who can pull a wagon,” and said that a strong mayor is a likely key to whatever city carries the U.S. banner for 2016.

Even if New York were to gear up again, however, it remains unclear whether the USOC would select it.

Some USOC officials were said to have felt left out of the loop at key points by New York organizers. Also, the USOC has said it will no longer give an automatic pass into future competitions to a city that tries and fails to secure the Games, as was the case with Salt Lake City’s losing 1998 bid.

In Los Angeles, where bidding for the Games has been a regular part of the civic fabric, and the 1984 Games under Ueberroth generated a $232.5 million profit that transformed Olympic economics, London’s win was greeted with interest.

Barry Sanders, a Los Angeles lawyer who serves as chairman of the committee that would vie for the Games, said it was far too soon to know whether L.A. would opt to mount a 13th bid.

Virtually every venue in Los Angeles, with the exception of a shooting range, is already built.

The USOC eliminated Los Angeles from 2012 bidding in part because it had played host to the Games twice.

“We do note that London will be hosting the Olympics for a third time,” Sanders said in a telephone interview. “We tip our hat to them.”

Joe Ramallo, a spokesman for Antonio Villaraigosa, said the mayor was unavailable to comment late Wednesday on a potential Olympic bid.

Times staff writers Achrene Sicakyuz in Paris, Sarah Price Brown in London and Patrick McGreevy in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

London in 2012

The International Olympic Committee selected London as the host of the 2012 Summer Olympics. The city, which narrowly defeated Paris in the voting, will become the first to host the Games three times.

Number of venues: 33; 10 still need to be constructed.

Advantages: Olympic Park and stadium close to athletes’ village; substantial investments in rail, regeneration of run-down areas of East London, multi-ethnic city.

Voting results

City with fewest votes in each round was eliminated.

Rounds

1st: London 22; Paris 21; Madrid 20; New York 19; Moscow 15

2nd: Madrid 32; London 27; Paris 25; New York 16

3rd: London 39; Paris 33; Madrid 31

4th: London 54; Paris 50

Source: Associated Press

Los Angeles Times