As inspectors from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) arrive in London to examine the city’s bid to host the 2012 Games, those behind the British capital’s attempt to stage the world’s most famous sports festival believe they are starting to close the gap on long-time favourites Paris.
It has often been said that the race, which also features Madrid, Moscow and New York, is Paris’s to lose.
But the French capital suffered its first setback last week when Paris bid bosses admitted that their aquatics centre would not be ready for them to bid for the 2009 world swimming championships as they had hoped.
Meanwhile Australian IOC member Kevan Gosper, the body’s former vice-president, came out publicly to say the contest was now a neck-and-neck race between London and Paris.
And the IOC’s former marketing chief Michael Payne, the man credited with turning the Olympics into a multi-million dollar machine, said: ”London keeps raising its game.
”I am pleasantly surprised,” the London-born Payne added. ”There is a long way to go but this is the most open race for 20 years.
”There is not a favourite like Beijing was for the 2008 Games. That doesn’t mean that Paris is not the favourite, but there is everything to play for.
”You don’t necessarily want to be the favourite in an open race with six months to go. I get the impression that many IOC members are just now beginning to focus on this race.”
Payne, the man behind the lucrative TV deals that swelled Olympic coffers in the 1980s and 90s, said the fact the British government was throwing its weight behind the bid was a key difference between London’s effort and previous British attempts
involving Manchester and Birmingham.
”People are realising now that the government is really behind it. They are getting the impression that this is for real.”
But London hasn’t helped its cause with some high-profile gaffes. First Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II was reported to have said Paris would win the bid race because of greater public support.
And this week there was further controversy, this time involving Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony, whose attempt at humour is unlikely to have impressed Olympic chiefs.
Their rules specifically state candidates must not rubbish rival cities’ bids. But on her recent book-promotion tour of Australia, Mrs Blair — who has no formal role in the London bid — told her audience: ”We are going to win the bid — what does Paris know about culture?”
Any offended Olympic officials might be interested to learn that Mrs Blair also miffed New Zealand diners by mistaking the country for Australia.
The 14-member IOC evaluation commission will arrive in London on Tuesday evening to spend four days visiting venues and hearing details of its plans.
They have already looked at Madrid and will travel on from London to New York, Paris and Moscow.
The inspection team is led by Moroccan Nawal El Moutawakei, the first Muslim woman to win an Olympic gold medal when she won the 400m hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
The 2012 hosts will be decided upon by a vote of the IOC membership at its July 6 session in Singapore. – Sapa-AFP