International Olympic Committee Picks London for 2012 Summer Games

To the surprise of most of the sporting world, and to this journal, the International Olympic Committee has chosen London as the host city for the 2012 Summer Games. Paris had been the odds-on favorite, and it was only a full court press from the City on the Thames that snatched the games away from the City of Light. The challenge now is to fix up the East End in the next seven years.

The bids from the other three finalists, Moscow, New York and Madrid, were never really plausible. Moscow is still seen as a rust-belt Communist city (and unfairly so), and the worries about Chechen terrorism coupled with infrastructure problems made it a nonstarter. Madrid was competent but not glittering, and glitter counts in the Olympic Movement. New York, despite local cheerleading, had a lousy proposal; while the media autopsy will focus on the dumb debate over the West Side stadium in Manhattan, the fact is that building the Olympic Village along the most polluted waterway in America was lethal to the Big Apple’s hopes.

The American media will shortly have loads of poor-sports commentary about how the Europeans ganged up on New York to deny it the games. Wishing doesn’t make it so. With four European candidates and one North American one, the European votes were split, and a strong North American bid should have lasted until at least the third round, and possibly to the second. Getting knocked out ahead of Madrid proved how weak the New York plan really was no matter where the stadium got built.

The voting was done as a proper election should be – as many rounds as needed with the bottom candidate eliminated until someone gets a majority. After Moscow departed in the first round, and New York was knocked out in the second, Madrid’s solid but dull plans ensured a London-Paris final. The final ballot was 54 for London and 50 for Paris.

London has hosted the games twice before, 1908 and 1948. This time, there will be beach volleyball at Horse Guards Parade (so Her Majesty can watch out her window), archery at Lord’s Cricket Ground, tennis at Wimbledon (surprise), sailing at Weymouth in Dorset, and baseball and softball in Regent’s Park. The keystone construction will be a stadium in Stratford (not Shakespeare’s rather twee Stratford-upon-Avon, but a rather deprived stop on the Central Line), and 9,000 new homes to regenerate the 500-acre area. Sebastian Coe, as leader of the London bid, deserves a knighthood for his efforts, but regrettably, he was ennobled already for his athletic talent -- so Lord Coe will have to make do with a “well done, old boy.”



© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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