From the Daily Mail -

London strikes gold to host 2012 Olympics




London has won an amazing victory by just four votes to host the 2012 Olympic Games today beating favourite and close rival Paris.
Sports Minister Richard Caborn, who was in Singapore with the bid team, revealed how close the final vote was with London winning 54 votes to Paris' 50.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, also in Singapore, said London had "come from nowhere".



Tell us your view » As the London bid team celebrated in Singapore there were jubilant scenes in Trafalgar Square where crowds had gathered to watch the momentous announcement.

There was a deathly silence in the moments before London was announced as the successful Olympic city for 2012.

When the good news was announced, the crowd burst into deafening cheers and applause, waving 2012 flags and balloons.

Thousands of multi-coloured pieces of confetti were sprayed into the air, falling down on the celebrating Londoners.

Hundreds of schoolchildren from all over the capital - particularly east London where the Games will be held - were given the day off to come and hear the decision being read out.

As the carnival atmosphere continued in Trafalgar Square, the Red Arrows flew over in perfect formation, to the delight of the crowd.

Organisers of the two bids faced an agonising hour-long wait before the final decision was officially announced by IOC president Jacques Rogge.

The whole voting process took less than half an hour but Mr Rogge stuck to the official timetable, revealing the result shortly after 12.45pm UK time.

London's bid organisers surged ahead after a slick and forceful final presentation earlier today.

Tony Blair, who arrived back from Singapore this morning, praised the "awesome" bid team.

He said the bid "had this idea of legacy", adding: "This is a momentous day for London."

London bid leader Lord Coe said "the quality of the bid and vision of the bid and the fact that we've got London" helped clinch it. "This is our moment," he added.

The Queen, in a message to Coe, said: "I send my warmest congratulations to you and every member of the London 2012 team for winning the bid for the UK.

"It's a really outstanding achievement to beat such a highly competitive field."

Two-horse race

The rival bids from Moscow, New York and Madrid had been eliminated in the opening three rounds of voting by International Olympic Committee members.

Moscow went first, followed by New York, before Madrid's exit made it a two-city race.

The three cities which fell at the final hurdle had widely been considered the weakest, although there had been reports that Madrid were gaining growing support.

Paris had been the the odds-on favourite with British bookmakers, but support for London had grown and officials in Singapore had been bullish this week.

Lord Coe had earlier had launched a passionate and inspirational plea to the International Olympic Committee to deliver the Games to London.

The bid chairman's closing speech told the IOC members they had the opportunity to be "bold" and vote for London and take the Olympic movement forward - or by implication stand still and vote for a less ambitious Games.

The presentation appeared to go down extremely well - and members of the London bid said afterwards it could not have been bettered.

Tony Blair had invoked the words of Nelson Mandela in a televised message as part of London's presentation.

The Prime Minister, who spoke in French for a third of the four-minute speech, also said he had been greatly inspired by his visit to the Athens Games last year.

Blair said: "We were honoured to receive the endorsement of Nelson Mandela, the most inspiring statesman of our age."

He quoted former South African president Mandela as saying he could not think of a better place to hold an event to unite the world.

"He said this 'London will inspire young people around the world and ensure the Olympic Games remain the dream for future generations'. Those words remind us that as leaders in government or sport we have a duty to reach beyond our own time and be there to have a vision which serves those who come after us," said Blair.

   

That's great, we were watching it here. When do tickets go on sale?

   

London is a very cool city - it will be awesome

   

I spent two weeks there five years ago and loved every second of it. London and the rest of the UK is great. I think traffic will be a huge headache.

   

Congratulations to the UK!

   

Good for them...

   

But the victory was sweeter because it came just a few days after Chirac's anti-British comments and the week after we celebrated the 200th anniversary of Nelson's victory over Napoleon.

But what about France? With its low growth and high unemployment, it needed the Olympics to boost its morale. Now with that gone down the drain, the outlook for France is like the weather here now - grey.



The rain was perhaps the first sign that things were not going well for Paris. But until 1.59pm the grey skies had failed to dampen the spirits of the thousands of French people who had gathered outside the city's Hotel de Ville.

There was a feeling that Paris could not lose and was in for what the newspaper Le Parisien described as "Seven Years of Happiness".

Then came the announcement that London had won the 2012 Olympics.

There was a collective groan and thousands of hands raised to mouths in shock. Then stunned silence. Immediately afterwards people began walking out of the square in front of City Hall like zombies. They had come for a party, even in the rain. Now there was nothing to celebrate and only the rain.

Sports teacher Fabrice Labruyeère had travelled 500km from the west of France with his wife Marie, their three-month-old baby Florentin and son Thomas, six, in anticipation of the games being awarded to Paris.

"It is so important for France to get the games," he had said beforehand. "It HAS to be here."

Afterwards he could barely speak.

"I'm so disappointed. So disappointed," he said, shaking his head and walking away in the rain which had turned from a spit to a drizzle.

Marie-Olga Tarasoff, a 48-year-old Parisian, shrieked "No" before standing in the crowd looking stunned.

"I don't believe it. We knew that we could lose, but we never ever believed it was possible," she said, close to tears.

"What more could we have done? "I just don't understand the decision...total incomprehension."

She added: "Now the outlook for France is like the sky. It is grey."

It was not a good time to be a British journalist asking questions.

"Well done to you," said one youngster, sarcastically. "Do you call that fair play? London played dirty," he added before walking away.

Unemployed Alan, a 58-year-old Parisian, unfolded a hastily written banner reading: London 2012 Lobbying Gold Medal.

"Lobbying is not a French sport," he said.

"Not that the decision surprises me, given the clowns like Chirac who are running our country."

He added: "This whole thing is symptomatic of the malaise in our country. The sad thing is that, unlike London, the infrastructure is here.

"It would have done so much for our unemployment problem and for our youth."

The battle for the games had been bitter and at times below the belt. But then many believed the French were fighting for the future of their nation.

As a country which already pops more anti-depressants pills than any other European nation, the French do not need an excuse to be down in the dumps. In fact, it had good reason to be demoralised even before the Olympic Committee's decision.

An ailing economy, high unemployment, dissatisfaction with its leaders, confusion over Europe leading to the sweeping rejection of the EU constitution have all served to create an atmosphere of gloom and doom.

Spirits have not been raised by Britain's relative prosperity and economic success, widely lauded in a succession of magazine articles.

That the unpopular French president Jacques Chirac, who oversaw the constitution debacle, is seen as yesterday's man while British prime minister Tony Blair is lauded as a force for tomorrow, has not helped.

Add in Britain's presidency of the EU which has allowed Mr Blair to strut and fret his "Anglo-Saxon liberalism" stuff on the continental stage and you can understand why the Gauls may have been feeling a tad morose of late.

"Britain may have wanted the games, but France needed them," more than one French person told me.

Some sought to find silver linings in the gloomy clouds.

Winning the games would have masked France's real problems for at least another seven years.

Losing the games may force France to face up to its problems and be better for the country in the long run. Having sunk to gloomy depths, the country may now set about fundamental changes it should have made years ago.

A cartoon in the satirical paper le Canard Enchaîné showed Bernadette Chirac saying to her anguished looking husband: "If we win you will have almost ruined everything - if will lose you will have really ruined everything."

It is, as one of those at the Hotel de Ville described, more than sport.

"It's a revolutionary moment," he said.



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