London Beats Paris Again!

Humiliations galore for the French after getting beaten by the English yet again!

This time, London beat Paris in a tight race to host the Summer Olympics in 2012. Paris was the odds-on favorite for years after getting passed over for both the '92 (Barcelona) and '08 (Beijing) Summer Games. Indeed, Tradesports.com had Paris as a 1-6 favorite as late as yesterday even though Jacques Chirac flew to Singapore in the final days of the selection presentations to shore up what he thought was a faltering bid.

Much credit goes to British Olympic champion Sebastian Coe who took over a faltering London bid last year and led the London group to victory.

Somehow, this probably did not help:

"The heart of Paris and the heart of France are beating in unison in the hope of becoming Olympic host in 2012," Chirac said during the city's final presentation to the IOC. "You can put your trust and faith in France, you can trust the French, you can trust us."

There's a laughable notion: trusting the French.

UPDATE: The nicely named Second Breakfast heard a radio report that Chirac's comments at a meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian "President" Vladimir Putin caused Paris to lose the vote. The main insult Chirac gave the Brits: "You can't trust people who cook as badly as that. After Finland, it's the country with the worst food." Two Finns were on the Olympic committee that voted for London. The final vote was 54-50. You do the math.

Ultimately, there are good reasons to pick London over Paris: governmental ability to deliver a good games, desireability of the location from the perspective of the most important international audience, the Americans, and a message that something is missing from the Paris bids that led to the city being passed over as the odds-on favorite. Look: if the Greeks can coordinate a successful Summer Olympics in a dump like Athens, the French ought to be able to create a successful Olympic environment in Paris.

New York, Madrid and Moscow were the other finalists. Moscow had no real chance and ultimately neither did New York. Moscow is basically second-class in relation to the other cities; New York had the lowest public support for its Olympic bid of the five finalists. Madrid had a good chance but a choice between giving the second of the past three Europe-based Summer Olympics to Spain (1992 = Barcelona, 2004 = Athens) should have been politically questionable (and Barcelona's much nicer than Madrid). So it came down to London v. Paris.

Kudos to the Brits.