London will host the 2012 Olympic Games after pulling off a spectacular victory to snatch the biggest prize in world sport from the favourite Paris.
The British bid beat its French counterpart in a final, fourth-round, run-off in Singapore on Wednesday, after the other three candidates had been successively eliminated in voting by more than 100 International Olympic Committee members.
Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, made the announcement just before 8pm after a day of high tension in a downtown Singapore hotel.
There were scenes of jubilation among the British delegation, led by Lord Sebastian Coe, in the minutes after the result was announced. And in Stratford in east London, the streets erupted in screams and cheers of celebration.
Mr Rogge’s statement brought down the curtain on an unprecedentedly tough Olympic race, with five great world cities - London, Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris - vying to stage the two-week extravaganza that is sport’s greatest spectacle.
The strength of the field underlined the health of the Olympic movement, with broadcasters and sponsors paying record sums to be associated with the Games, in spite of the shadows cast by doping and the Salt Lake City corruption scandal.
London’s triumph appeared, in the moments after the vote, to be attributable to two prime factors: energetic lobbying, spearheaded by Tony Blair, UK prime minister, in Singapore in the final days of the two-year campaign; and a brilliantly conceived final presentation, which may have persuaded members to back London as their second choice.
”If there were floating votes out there... we feel that our presentation hit the right notes,” said Philip Pope, spokesman for the British Olympic Committee.
Under the rules of the contest, the city with the fewest votes was eliminated after each round until the winner secured a majority. Members who backed the eliminated candidate were thus faced with the need to switch horses in mid-race, making second and even third choices a potentially decisive factor.
The vote followed a contrasting series of presentations by the rival candidates, involving dozens of heavyweight politicians and stars from the fields of sports and entertainment, appearing in person or on film or video.
London put youth and diversity at the heart of its pitch, with a group of 30 schoolchildren joining David Beckham, the England football captain, in the audience.
The presentation opened with a message from the Queen, conveyed by her daughter, the Princess Royal, an IOC member. “I very much hope to welcome each of you to the palace in 2012,” the Queen said.
It concluded with a finely-judged personal speech by Lord Coe, who explained how he was inspired to become an athlete by watching the Mexico City Games of 1968 on television.
Mr Blair was unable to be present, having flown back to Scotland after two days of intensive closed-door meetings with Olympic luminaries. However, he contributed a filmed message, spoken partly in French, promising IOC members that London would be “your very best partners”.
The businesslike Paris pitch featured a personal address by Jacques Chirac, the French president, who told members: “The France of Pierre de Coubertin [founder of the modern Olympics] is ready to welcome the Olympic flame”.
Mr Chirac was then due to jet back to Scotland for the summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations and was expected to learn of the result in mid-flight.
New York exited in the 2nd round, in spite of a glitzy and heart-felt presentation, featuring Hillary Rodham Clinton, the senator and former first lady, in person and both president George W. Bush and former president Bill Clinton on video.
Russian president Vladimir Putin also contributed, in clipped English, to Moscow’s presentation whose highlight was a very personal speech by Alexander Popov, the former swimmer and IOC member, who spoke of watching the 1980 Games on “a small black and white television in the Ural mountains 2,000 kilometres from Moscow. Moscow fell in the first round, as most observers had expected.
For Madrid, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, and Queen Sofia contributed to a flamenco-tinged presentation. Juan Antonio Samaranch, son of the long-time IOC president and an IOC member, said: “I honestly believe that Madrid is extraordinarily well suited to take the Olympic movement to new heights.”
However, Mr Zapatero was forced to provide assurances on security by a question by Prince Albert of Monaco, an IOC member. Madrid fell in the third round, leaving just London and Paris in the contest.
The bid teams exhibited a varied sartorial sense, ranging from Paris’s conservative grey Givenchy suits, lined with a map of the city, to New York’s blue blazers, white trousers and colourful New York 2012 ties.