LONDON wins a cliffhanger

Published : Jul 16, 2005 00:00 IST

THE BRITISH double gold medal winner Sebastian Coe arrived to deliver his bid-clinching speech, trailing behind him a secret weapon: 30 children from London's East End.

PAUL KELSO

THE BRITISH double gold medal winner Sebastian Coe arrived to deliver his bid-clinching speech, trailing behind him a secret weapon: 30 children from London's East End. Where rival bids filled their 100 allotted seats in the Raffles hotel auditorium with suits, London presented the International Olympic Committee with a grinning multiracial example of the city's potential.

It was to prove inspired, although Coe and his team had to wait six excruciating hours before they knew it. London's victory was announced only after a presentation ceremony that scaled new heights of kitsch.

Two Singaporean sopranos and a tenor dressed like a maitre d' subjected the Olympic anthem, a tune whose primary virtue is to be heard only once every four years, to a fearful mauling.

Eventually, the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, recovered his composure and requested the envelope bearing the name of the winning city.

It was conveyed to him on a silk pillow by a 15-year-old sailor cadet in the Singaporean navy. Even then the seconds passed agonisingly. The president grappled with the A4 envelope like a man not used to opening his own mail. An excruciating preamble ensued, followed by one sweet word: ``London''.

And so it was that Coe learned that he had secured 54 IOC votes to Paris's 50. It was a victory more momentous than anything the double gold medallist had achieved on the track, one that has the potential to transform British sport, London and the life of each of those 30 giggling, blue-shirted kids.

Thirteen hours' flying time away at Gleneagles, Tony Blair found the build-up even more unbearable than those in Singapore did. So unbearable, in fact, that he missed the announcement — he was attempting to calm his nerves with a walk in the hotel grounds. The Downing Street switchboard broke the news to him on his mobile. ``We have won! We have won!'' the official screamed. According to his own account, the Prime Minister punched the air, did a little jig and embraced his startled chief of staff, Jonathan Powell.

Blair, who had helped to lay the groundwork for victory during three days of intense, one-to-one lobbying of the 80 IOC members, said hard work had paid off. ``We had the right message that we wanted, a strong message for the Olympic mood,'' he said.

The vision delivered so forcefully and successfully by the London team was in the promise to provide inspiration for a generation entranced by computers and hooked on fast food.

Where Madrid, Moscow, New York and the French capital sought to reassure and flatter the IOC with presidential promises and high-budget tourism videos, Coe set out a challenge to a movement sometimes more concerned with its internal politics than its mission.

``Some might say your decision today is between five similar bids. That would be to undervalue the opportunity before you,'' he said. ``In the past, you have made bold decisions ... this is a decision about which city will help us show a new generation why sport matters. On behalf of the youth of today, the athletes of tomorrow and the Olympians of the future, we humbly submit the bid of London 2012.''

Coe's appeal was backed by a new film, which focused on the inspirational power of the Games, drawing on his own experiences in 1968 watching a black and white television in a classroom as athletes from his own home town of Sheffield, John and Sheila Sherwood competed in the Mexico Olympics.

Fast forward the film and a Japanese child is watching the 2012 London Olympics on television. She pulls her iPod from her ears and returns to the gymnastics mat, growing with every tumble into an Olympic champion.

With long-term favourite Paris proposing a solid, stable risk-free Olympic experience, and banking on the fact that, having bid twice before, the IOC would find it difficult to reject it a third time, London's transformative pitch offered a genuine choice.

Gerhard Heiberg, a member of the IOC executive board, later conceded as much. ``London gave a great presentation and Coe was excellent. It was an emotional vote in there, and people went with their hearts and not their heads.''

Earlier, Paris had been the first to address the IOC. The French attempted to match their audience, using exclusively white middle-aged men to deliver their message, culminating in a plea from President Jacques Chirac.

Even a promo film directed by Luc Besson seemed staid, featuring enough talking heads to suggest the great auteur has a future in corporate videos should the Hollywood commissions end.

It was unspectacular, but many believed it still might be good enough to deliver the Games, particularly after New York, Madrid and Moscow delivered no surprises.

When it came to the actual election at 6.30 pm, the sadism of the IOC's stage management became clear. Voting secretly via electronic keypads, the IOC sped through three rounds, dumping Moscow, New York and Madrid within 12 minutes.

It was only when the voting figures were released later that it became apparent that London had performed well throughout, coming first in all but the second vote, when it fell behind Madrid.

With Paris and London remaining and millions on tenterhooks, the IOC voted one last time. Two minutes later, with the result known to a handful of members, the delegations were sent away for an hour, returning for the gut-wrenching conclusion.

Keith Mills, London 2012's chief executive, had arranged to be put out of his misery by a friendly member. ``He told me he would leave his handkerchief poking out of his pocket if we had won, but I couldn't see him when we got back in.''

Coe described himself as ``a touch tense'' as he took a call from Blair while waiting for the IOC president to tear open the winner's envelope.

Moments later he was engulfed in joyous members of his team, a particularly unrestrained David Beckham among them. The party continued long into the night on the banks of the Singapore river, the children who had helped to bring home a barely credible victory long since tucked up in bed.

� Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

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