'12 Olympics go to Britain

LONDON -- From the streets of Singapore to Trafalgar Square, jubilant Londoners celebrated their upset victory Wednesday over Paris for the right to stage the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

Thousands who had crammed into Trafalgar -- built to honor a sea battle that marked another famous triumph over the French 200 years ago -- erupted with joy and disbelief when the president of the International Olympic Committee announced the results in a live broadcast from Singapore, seven time zones away. Simultaneously, about 210 miles to the south, Parisians gathered at their city hall anticipating success reacted with a collective groan. Some wept openly, while others drifted away in silence.

Madrid, Moscow and New York were also in the running at the start of what became the tightest site selection contest in modern Olympic history. They were eliminated in the first three rounds of voting, in which the lowest-scoring city was dropped each time. London won the fourth and final round by 54 to 50.

"We always knew that this was going to be a very tense result," said Princess Anne, an IOC member and director of the London 2012 bid, at a news conference. "You can't have five cities of that quality without it being very close."

Paris had lost two other recent bids for the Olympics and last hosted the games in 1924. London staged the Olympics in 1908 and 1948. Britain had mounted three recent unsuccessful bids, twice by Manchester and once by Birmingham.

France had been considered the front-runner throughout the process, with a well-developed plan, an already-built stadium and an air of quiet self-confidence. French President Jacques Chirac had flown to Singapore Tuesday for a quick appearance to make the final presentation and bask in the expected glory.

But London's bid, led at the Singapore selection committee meeting by two-time Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe, had gathered momentum in recent weeks. British proponents emphasized that the games could help regenerate their capital's once-neglected East End area. Prime Minister Tony Blair spent three days lobbying officials in Singapore, emphasizing his government's commitment to the project, before returning home to chair the Group of Eight summit of world leaders in Scotland that began Wednesday.

Blair, grinning broadly, told reporters he had been too nervous to watch the televised selection ceremony, and had paced the grounds of his hotel until he got a phone call from his London office with the surprising news.

"It's not often in this job that you punch the air and do a little jig and embrace the person standing next to you," he said. "It's a fantastic thing. I'm absolutely thrilled."

For Blair, winning the Olympics is the latest in a series of triumphs. The prime minister's governing Labor Party won a third consecutive electoral victory in May, albeit by a smaller margin than in landslides of the past. Last week Britain took over the presidency of the European Commission for the next six months, and Blair promised to promote economic reform. London also was the flagship site for last Saturday's worldwide Live 8 rock concerts. Blair, meanwhile, is pressing an agenda of increased aid for Africa and renewed focus on global climate change at the G8.

In contrast, the losing Paris bid represented a new public humiliation for Chirac, Blair's long-standing rival for leadership of Europe. About a month ago, Chirac suffered a defeat when French voters rejected a proposed European Union constitution he had championed.

Chirac, who had been quoted by a French newspaper over the weekend as privately mocking British cuisine and trustworthiness, issued a statement congratulating London.

Sophie Edwards, a physician who lives in one of the East End neighborhoods expected to benefit from the decision, said she believed the new games would succeed in "making people feel good about themselves."

But in this true-life tale of two cities, Parisians were not impressed.

"What annoys me most is that we lost to the British again," said Nino Bigudi, a Paris bar owner. "I don't really mind about the games -- I'm more interested in rugby -- but what I hate is that the English won."