Beijing's Olympic coup is top story

LONDON -- The selection of Beijing as host of the 2008 Summer Olympics was voted the top international sports story of 2001 in a worldwide poll of Associated Press subscribers.

Beijing handily defeated four other cities -- Toronto; Paris; Istanbul, Turkey; and Osaka, Japan -- in the International Olympic Committee vote in Moscow on July 13.

The decision was seen as confirmation of China's emerging status as a global power and as a potential catalyst for accelerating reforms and improving human rights in the world's most populous country.

The human-rights issue had contributed to Beijing's narrow defeat to Sydney in the 1993 vote for the 2000 Olympics. But this time, the IOC embraced the view that the Olympics would promote positive change and further open China to the rest of the world.

The awarding of the Olympics to Beijing finished first with 310 points in the AP survey of sports editors in more than 30 countries, outside the United States, on all five continents. Beijing also received the most first-place votes with 12.

Points were awarded on a sliding scale, ranging from 10 points for first place to one for 10th place.

Second place in the poll -- with 266 points and nine-first place votes -- went to the record-setting season of Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher.