The 2012 Summer Olympics reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004
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2012 Summer Olympics

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Bids are being made for host city of the 2012 Summer Olympics. On May 18th 2004, the International Olympic Committee announced a short list of potential hosts.

The finalists are:

The shortlisted candidates were judged on a 50-page questionnaire submitted on January 15th 2004. The committee gave a weighted average score to each city based on scores in eleven categories, such as finance, security and transport.
  1. Paris emerged as the general highest scoring candidate at 8.5, although it scored highest in only three categories ("Accommodation", "Safety and security" and "Experience from past sports events"). However, the "Accommodation" category is one of the most important and Paris scored 10 in it. Bookmakers have listed Paris as their strong favourite to win the nomination. But their bid may be hampered by the fact that Paris has already held the Games twice, even though long ago (see 1900 Summer Olympics and 1924 Summer Olympics). If granted the XXX Olympiad, Paris will become the first city ever to host the Olympic Games for a third time.
  2. Madrid ranked second with a general score of 8.3, ranking first in six categories ("Government support, legal issues and public opinion", "General infrastructure", "Sports venues", "Olympic Village", "Transport concept" and "Overall project and legacy"). Some commentators have suggested their bid may be hampered by the fact that the Games were held in Spain as recently as 1992 (see 1992 Summer Olympics); although those Games were held in Barcelona and were praised by the IOC for their excellent organization, and by 2012 they will be twenty years behind (while Atlanta held the Games only twelve years after Los Angeles).
  3. London was ranked third on the list at 7.6. It scored poorly in the "Transport concept" and "Government support, legal issues and public opinion" categories, but it shared a 10 with Paris and New York in the important "Accommodation" category. Like Paris, their bid may be hampered by having already held the Games twice before (see 1908 Summer Olympics and 1948 Summer Olympics), so London could as well become the first city to host them for a third time in 2012.
  4. New York scored fourth at 7.5, although it scored first in the "Accommodation" category, sharing a 10 with Paris and London. Their bid may be hampered by the fact that the 2010 Winter Olympics are being held in Vancouver and organisers are believed to be eager to avoid having both Olympics on the same continent. However, of the five candidates, only New York and Madrid have never hosted the Games before.
  5. Moscow scored lowest of the selected candidates at 6.5. It did not score highest in any category and their bid may be further hampered by Moscow having already held the Games in 1980 (see 1980 Summer Olympics).

The initial deadline to submit a bid was July 15, 2003. All nine that submitted bids also met the January 15 deadline for the questionnaire. IOC members will now visit each city in turn during the early part of 2005. They will submit a report in May, which may result in the cutting of more candidates from the list. The final decision will be taken during the IOC Session in Singapore in July 2005. Shortlisted candidates have been granted the right to use the Olympic flame and Olympic rings imagery in their campaign literature.

Other cities that had made bids but did not make the short list:

Bid organisers in Istanbul were particularly frustrated that their bid was not sufficient to make the shortlist - their 2008 had made the shortlist and the organisers believed their bid had only improved since then. Of the failed bidders, Rio was perhaps the least expected to fall at this hurdle.

Other cities that had considered bidding but did not submit a bid before the deadline included:

See also: 2012 Summer Paralympics

External links


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