2012 Summer Olympics bids

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2012 Summer Olympics bids
Overview · London Paris· Madrid· Moscow· New York City
2012 Summer Olympics
Details
Election venue	Raffles City, Singapore
Committee	International Olympic Committee
Important dates
First bid	2003-07-15
Second bid	2004-01-15
Shortlist	2004-05-18
Decision	2005-07-06
Decision
Winner	London
Runner-up	Paris

Five cities made the shortlist with their bids to host the 2012 Summer Olympics (formally known as the Games of the XXX Olympiad). These were awarded to London, which will become the first city to host the Olympic Games three times.^[1] The other four shortlisted cities were Madrid, Moscow, New York City, and Paris. The bidding for the 2012 Olympics was considered to be one of the most hotly-contested in the history of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).^[2] Paris was considered the front-runner for most of the campaign,^[3] but last minute lobbying by London supporters is considered one of the factors that led to the success of its bid.^[1] Madrid was also considered a favourite to win but, in the end, the city did not get enough votes to surpass Paris and London.^[4]

Nine cities submitted applications to host the Games. After an evaluation of all applications, the top five bids progressed to the shortlist and the corresponding cities became official candidates, on 18 May 2004, while the remaining applicant cities, Leipzig, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul and Havana, were eliminated at that point.^[5] Four of the five candidate cities were national capitals of major importance, lending this final bidding phase an enormous competitive interest. Paris and Madrid had earned the top scores during the application phase. In early 2005, a further, more thorough evaluation process put Paris and London in a close race which only became tighter as the final vote approached. On July 6, 2005, in a four-round voting of the IOC — gathered at the 117th IOC Session in Singapore — Moscow, New York City, and Madrid were eliminated in the first three rounds, leaving Paris and London in the final round. By a margin of a mere four votes, London won that round to secure the right to host the Olympics.^[5]

For nearly a month after the election, members of the Paris 2012 delegation argued that the London delegation had violated the rules of the IOC. Key points in the accusations were London 2012's abortive athlete incentive initiative and lobbying by British prime-minister Tony Blair.^[6] These comments were essentially dismissed by IOC president Jacques Rogge's public statement that the competition had been fair and no rules had been violated.^[7] Another controversy erupted when an IOC member claimed that Madrid had been eliminated in the third round due to another member pressing the wrong button while voting. That member turned out to have abstained altogether in that round.^[8]

[edit] Bidding process

The bidding procedure, which begins with the submission of a city's bid application to the IOC, by its country's National Olympic Committee (NOC), and ends with one of a series of elections by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is governed by the Olympic Charter, as stated in Chapter 5, Rule 34.^[9]

As of 1999, the process has consisted of two phases. The first phase starts immediately after the IOC's deadline for application submission by the NOCs. During this phase, the "applicant cities" are required to answer a questionnaire covering several themes of major importance to a successful Games organization, allowing the IOC to better analyze the cities' hosting capacities, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of its plans. After a detailed study of the questionnaire and ensuing report, the IOC Executive Board selects which applicant cities are qualified to proceed to the next bidding phase. The second phase is the true candidature stage; the accepted applicant cities (now referred to as "candidate cities") are required to answer a second questionnaire and submit it in the form of an extended, more detailed, candidature file.^[10] These files are carefully studied by the IOC Evaluation Commission, a group composed of IOC members, representatives of international sport federations (IFs), NOCs, athletes, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), and international experts in various fields.^[11] The Evaluation Commission then makes four-day inspection visits to each of the candidate cities. This commission communicates the inspections' results in a written report sent to the IOC members, up to one month before the electing IOC Session.^[10]

The IOC Session during which the host city is elected takes place in a country that did not submit an application.^[10] The election is made by the assembled active IOC members, excluding honorary and honour members, each possessing one vote. Members from countries that have a city taking part in the election cannot vote while the city is in the running. The voting is made in a succession of rounds, until one bid achieves an absolute majority of votes; if this does not happen in the first round, the bid with the least votes is eliminated and another voting round begins. In the case of a tie for the lowest number of votes, a special voting between the two bids is carried out with the winner proceeding to the next round. After each round, the eliminated bid is announced.^[12][13] Following the announcement of the winner, the successful bid delegation signs the "Host City Contract" with the IOC, delegating to the city and respective NOC the responsibility of the organization of the Games.^[14]

[edit] Evaluation of applicant cities

The deadline to submit an application for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games was July 15, 2003. All nine cities that submitted bids before that date also met the January 15, 2004 deadline for the 50-page questionnaire.^[15] Through analysis of this questionnaire and visits to potential Olympic sites, the IOC gave a weighted average score to each city based on scores in eleven categories such as finance, security, accommodation, past experience and transport. If a bid's score was higher than 6 (IOC's predefined benchmark score), the city was considered highly capable of hosting the Games; otherwise, its hosting chances were very slim.^[16] On 2004-05-18, the IOC released the results of the evaluations of the potential hosts and announced which cities were accepted as candidates:^[15]

• Paris — scored 8.5 (bid details)
• Madrid — scored 8.3 (bid details)
• London — scored 7.6 (bid details)
• New York City — scored 7.5 (bid details)
• Moscow — scored 6.5 (bid details)
• Leipzig — scored 6.0
• Rio de Janeiro — scored 5.1
• Istanbul — scored 4.8
• Havana — scored 3.6

The five highest-rated applicant cities progressed to the next phase as candidate cities.^[15] As stipulated, the IOC granted them the right to use the Olympic rings together with a label identifying each one as a "Candidate City" on the bid's candidature emblem.^[17]

[edit] Evaluation of candidate cities

By November 15, 2004, all candidate cities had submitted their candidature files to the IOC. After a period of analysis of the candidature files, the five candidate cities were visited by the IOC Evaluation Commission, a 12-member commission chaired by Moroccan IOC member Nawal El Moutawakel.^[11] The four-day visits occurred from February 3 to March 17, 2005:^[15]

• Madrid — February 3–6
• London — February 16–19
• New York City — February 21–24
• Paris — March 9–12
• Moscow — March 14–17

The Paris bid suffered two setbacks during the inspection visit: a number of strikes and demonstrations coincided with the visits and a report was released that stated that Guy Drut, one of the key members of the Paris bid team and IOC member, would face charges over alleged corrupt political party finances.^[18]

On June 6, 2005, the IOC released the inspection team's evaluation reports of the five candidate cities.^[15] Although these reports did not contain any scores or rankings, the evaluation report for Paris was considered the most positive, followed closely by London, which had narrowed down most of the gap observed at the time of the evaluation of the applicant cities in 2004. New York and Madrid also obtained very positive evaluation reports, whereas Moscow was considered the weakest bid.^[19] On the same day, New York's bid suffered a major setback following the report that the State of New York refused to fund the centrepiece New York 2012 West Side Stadium.^[20] It took one week for the New York campaign to come up with an alternative plan, but such a major change with only one month to go before the final vote damaged the city's chances.

Throughout the process and leading up to the vote at the 117th IOC Session, Paris was widely seen as the favourite to win the nomination, particularly as this was its third bid in recent history (previous bids in 1992 and 2008). Originally, London was seen lagging behind Paris by a considerable margin, however this started to change with the appointment of Sebastian Coe as new head of London 2012, on May 19, 2004.^[21] In late August 2004, some reports that predicted a tie between London and Paris in the 2012 election started emerging.^[22] In the final run-up to the 117th IOC Session, London and Paris appeared to be increasingly in a neck-and-neck race. On July 1, 2005, the IOC president Jacques Rogge, when asked who the winner would be, told the assembled press: "I cannot predict it since I don't know how the IOC members will vote. But my gut feeling tells me that it will be very close. Perhaps it will come down to a difference of say ten votes, or maybe less".^[23]

[edit] Final selection process

See also: 117th IOC Session

A special type of hybrid orchid was bred to commemorate the IOC Session in Singapore. The flower, named "Vanda IOC", descends from Vanda Miss Joaquim, the national flower.^[24]

The opening ceremony of the 117th IOC Session was held at the Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, in Singapore on July 5, 2005, and the guest of honor was the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, who officially opened the session. The ceremony opened with song, dance and martial arts exhibitions with the theme "One Voice, One Rhythm, One World".^[25]

On July 6, 2005, the election day, the IOC Session was held at the Raffles City Convention Centre. It began at 1:00 UTC with the one-hour final presentations of the candidate cities, followed by a half-hour press briefing, in the following order: Paris, New York, Moscow, London and Madrid. The bid presentations ended at 9:00 UTC and were followed by a presentation of the Evaluation Commission's final report, which preceded the election.^[26] Of the 116 active IOC members, 17 could not vote in the first round, leaving 99 members who could exert their voting rights.^[27]

The electronic ballot began at 10:26 UTC, with the first three rounds eliminating Moscow, New York and Madrid from the running respectively. After a city was eliminated, members from that city's country were allowed to vote in the following round. London and Paris were in the fourth and final round of voting, which concluded at 10:45 UTC. An hour later, at 11:49 UTC, the London bid was formally announced as the winner, by Jacques Rogge.^[3] Approximately one billion viewers watched the announcement on live television.^[25]

After the announcement, the ballot results were published. London gathered more votes in the 1st, 3rd and final round, while Madrid's bid won the 2nd round despite falling short on votes in the 3rd round and being eliminated. The competitive tightness of the bids from Paris and London was ultimately demonstrated by a four-vote difference in the final round.

2012 Host City Election — ballot results
City	Country (NOC)	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4
London	Great Britain	22	27	39	54
Paris	France	21	25	33	50
Madrid	Spain	20	32	31	—
New York City	United States	19	16	—	—
Moscow	Russia	15	—	—	—

[edit] Candidate city overview

[edit] London

Main article: London 2012 Olympic bid

A London Underground train decorated to promote London's Olympic bid.

After Birmingham and Manchester failed to deliver winning bids for the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games, it was decided that London, the British capital with a population of 7.3 million, could be given the chance to host a Summer Olympic Games.^[28] The centrepiece of the London bid was the Lower Lea Valley, the location slated to be transformed into a world-class Olympic Park and Olympic Village. It will be connected via a high-speed shuttle service, dubbed the Olympic Javelin, and existing transportation links, capable of transferring 240,000 people per hour.^[29] When the Games have finished, the Lower Lea Valley will be transformed into the largest urban park developed in Europe for more than 150 years, with 500 acres (200 ha),^[30] and will be home to the Olympic Medical Institute (OMI), a sports medical and rehabilitation centre and a place to study the Olympic ideals.^[31] The bid called for substantial improvement of the London Underground system, which is supposed to be able to handle the Olympic crowds, and more investment into new Olympic sites throughout London. London was considered by many to be the second favourite for the bid after Paris, but intense lobbying by the bid team at the later stages of the bid process swung the votes in their favour.^[1] The day after the election, the victory celebrations were marred and stopped by the terrorist attacks on London's public transport system. This prompted immediate fears concerning the security of the London Games, to which both the IOC and British officials reacted in a reassuring way.^[32][33]

[edit] Paris

Main article: Paris 2012 Olympic bid

The logo of the Paris 2012 bid on the front of the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) in Paris.

Paris was considered by many to be the favourite to become the host city of the 2012 Olympics,^[3] considering it lost out its previous bids for the 1992 and the 2008 Summer Olympics to Barcelona and Beijing, respectively. Paris's bid planned the placement of several sports venues in the northern and western clusters, with the Olympic Village in between, less than 10 minutes away from both clusters.^[34] The plan had gained high technical merit from the IOC due to the city's well-maintained transport system and its ability to handle a peak number of tourists with plentiful accommodation; it also enjoyed a very high support among Parisians and the nation.^[35] Though much of the infrastructure, like the Stade de France, was already in place, Paris's bid also planned to build temporary sports venues that could be moved and reused elsewhere after the Games.^[35] Its rich cultural and Olympic heritage were emphasized as well as the city's large experience in hosting successful international sporting events, including the 1998 World Cup and the 2003 World Championships in Athletics.^[35] All of these items placed Paris in a very strong position.

[edit] Madrid

Main article: Madrid 2012 Olympic bid

Madrid 2012's "Ready for you" campaign

Madrid, Spain's capital city, beat out Seville to represent the country on the international stage.^[36] Madrid presented an above average bid, with almost all venues located in three clusters close to each other and to the city's centre.^[37] Several existing facilities ensured the low financing necessary to host the Olympics, while new, permanent sporting venues would have provided a lasting Olympic legacy to the city.^[37] For the first time in the Games, the public transport infrastructure would be entirely used to accommodate the hundreds of thousands gathering in the capital, without the help of private transportation.^[37] All venues and public transports would run on renewable energies, nicknaming Madrid's Games as the "green Olympics".^[37] Madrid also had the experience of hosting numerous European and World championships and cups in several Olympic sports.^[38] The bid collected a resounding support among the city and national population,^[38] and its promotion was boosted with the support of former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was lobbying votes for it.^[39] During the last stages of the final selection, IOC member Prince Albert of Monaco questioned the security of Madrid, remembering the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks which took place in the city on March 11, 2004, killing 191 people. The Spanish delegation found this remark especially offensive and regarded the final election of London over Madrid as a consequence of Albert's words. The day after the announcement of London as the winning candidate to host the 2012 Olympic Games (2005-07-07), Al Qaeda attacked London's public transport infrastructure, killing 52 people.

[edit] New York

Main article: New York City 2012 Olympic bid

A countdown clock on Union Square showing the time remaining until selection. It was part of the Metronome monument and has since been removed.

New York City was selected over San Francisco during the United States internal bid competition in 2002. The "Olympic X" plan was the main concept proposed by the bid team: two primary transportation lines would string together the several Olympics venue clusters in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, with the 8,550-room Olympic Village located at the lines' intersection.^[40] On the clusters, existing venue sites such as Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, Giants Stadium, Central Park and the USTA National Tennis Center, would stand next with new venues like the Queensbridge Athletic Center, Greenbelt Equestrian Center, and Flushing Meadows Regatta Center.^[41] The city has plentiful accommodation, international sports events hosting experience, and one of the strongest aspects of the bid was the city's ability to market itself throughout the world.^[40] The bid was dealt a setback when New York State refused to approve the construction of the West Side Stadium which was to be a main venue for the Olympics, and hampered the bid in the short-run.^[42] However, the New York bid was revived with the utilization of a new stadium, Citi Field, as the primary venue for athletics and the ceremonies.^[42] New York was not seen as a front-runner, and their chances for getting the games were hurt after Vancouver got the 2010 Winter Olympics because both were in North America.^[43]

[edit] Moscow

Main article: Moscow 2012 Olympic bid

Manezhnaya Square in Moscow with the logo of the bid.

Moscow represented Russia in the bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The capital city's Olympic plans were to build on top of the legacy created after the 1980 Summer Olympics. Moscow's concept plan called for every single competition to be staged within city limits, in clustered zones around the Moscow River, making this one of the "most compact Games ever", according to the bid's head Valery Shantsev.^[44] All existing venues would have been extensively renovated and more venues were to be constructed in time for the Olympics.^[45] A new, modern Olympic Village was to be constructed on the banks of the Moscow River, which was the centrepiece and core of the city's Olympic bid.^[45] Despite a high support from the city and national population (77–76%) and an extended hosting experience, Moscow's bid suffered from a lack of accommodation and an older transport system which may not have been able to cope with the expected traffic from the Olympics.^[45]

[edit] Controversies

[edit] French recriminations following vote

The Paris 2012 delegation, led by Bertrand Delanoë, argued that British prime-minister Tony Blair and the London 2012 delegation broke the rules established by the IOC. On July 11, 2005, Delanoë stated: "They have not respected the rules established by the International Olympic Committee. I do not say that they were flirting with the yellow line, I say that they crossed the yellow line".^[6][46] Probably the most controversial move by London 2012 was its initiative to offer incentive packages for participating athletes (including free flights, economical accommodations, food and vouchers for long distance calling) and immediately after announcing it, London 2012 withdrew it, most likely as a result of President Jacques Rogge raising concerns because it could have started a "bidding war".^[47] Paris 2012 also claimed that the lobbying by Tony Blair would have broken IOC rules, an accusation that was strongly denied by Downing Street.^[46] It was not until 4 August 2005, that Jacques Rogge eliminated any further controversies by a clearly worded statement: "I made it very clear that, in my opinion, the competition was fair. It was conducted according to the rules that we have set out".^[7] The comments by Delanoë were also criticized by some other Parisian political leaders. Claude Goasguen, president of the UMP Party stated: "One cannot make such type of accusations without delivering any proof".^[6]

Prior to the election, an unrest feeling had started growing between Paris's and London's delegations, already in Singapore. The Parisian team considered submitting a complaint against London 2012 consultants Jim Sloman and Rod Sheard, after they had stated that the Stade de France was not adequate for athletics, which goes against IOC rules.^[48] The London team promptly denied that the two men were under contract with the bid, at that time, and thus their opinions didn't reflect the view of the London bid.^[48]

[edit] Mistaken voting controversy

On December 23, 2005, some months after the bid process was over, Alex Gilady, an Israeli IOC member and member of IOC's London 2012 Co-ordination Commission, suggested that Madrid should have tied for second with Paris in the third round of voting, but didn't do so due to Greek member Lambis Nikolaou pressing the wrong button.^[49] He further postulated that if this had happened, Madrid would have beaten Paris in the resulting run-off ballot for second place, and gone on to beat London in the final round.^[49] However, Craig Reedie, a British IOC member, dismissed the claims, commenting that a claim "that an unnamed member 'might' have done something which 'might' have brought about something else which 'might' have brought about a different result is 'the kind of tittle-tattle that happens after many an IOC vote'."^[49]

By the end of 2005, Lambis Nikolaou denied the claim: "All speculations regarding my role in the third round of candidate cities for 2012 are completely unfounded. I declare that I did not vote during the third round as I had announced during the election in question.".^[8] The latter is indeed confirmed by the IOC voting numbers.^[50] It also means that, even if Nikolaou had voted for Madrid, it would have failed to beat Paris in the third voting round. Gilady later apologised by letter to Nikolaou, denying that he had mentioned Nikolau's name.^[8]

[edit] Potential applicant cities

Many other cities delivered bids to their National Olympic Committees (NOCs) but they were not put forward to the IOC or were withdrawn before filling the necessary paperwork.^[51]

The Nigerian capital Abuja planned to present a bid to become the first African city to stage the Olympic Games, in 2012, but ended up not applying.^[52] From Asia, three cities that were interested in holding the Games, but didn't put forward a bid, were Hyderabad,^[53] New Delhi,^[54] and Tel Aviv.^[55] In South America, the Brazilian Olympic Committee chose to nominate Rio de Janeiro instead of São Paulo, following a 23–10 voting.^[56] Had Rio de Janeiro been chosen by the IOC and it will also be the first Olympiad staged in South America.

Bids from North American countries originated from Canada — Toronto was trying to gain hosting rights for 2012, after losing the 2008 Olympics, but since Vancouver had won the bidding process for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the city withdrew its candidacy^[57] — and the United States, where New York City was picked by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) over San Francisco,^[58] although several other American cities submitted their candidatures: Houston, Washington, D.C. (in cooperation with nearby Baltimore), Cincinnati, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Tampa (in cooperation with nearby Orlando).^[59]

In Europe, some nations were also hopeful to gain their NOC's support. Germany chose Leipzig over Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Stuttgart,^[60] while Spain elected Madrid over Seville.^[36] Other cities that intended to bid or were referenced as possible bidders were Budapest,^[61] Milan, Rome,^[62] Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Oslo and Copenhagen.^[63]

[edit] See also

• 2008 Summer Olympic bids
• 2010 Winter Olympic bids
• 2014 Winter Olympic bids

[edit] References

[edit] External links

2012 Summer Olympics
Bid process Bid details Announcements and developments Venues
IOC BOA LOCOG ODA

Wikinews has news related to:

London to host 2012 Olympic Games

[edit] Official bid sites

• London 2012 (candidature file)
• Madrid 2012

[edit] IOC reports

• IOC Candidature Acceptance Working Group Report (May 12, 2004)
• IOC Evaluation Commission Report (June 6, 2005)
  • Chapter: London
  • Chapter: Madrid
  • Chapter: Moscow
  • Chapter: New York
  • Chapter: Paris

[edit] Other links

• 117th IOC Session (July 6–9, 2005 — Singapore)
• 2012 Host City Election — announcement (WMV file)