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Nine cities bid for right to host 2012 Olympics

The high-profile race for the 2012 Olympics is starting to get serious.

The nine applicant cities submitted preliminary documents to the International Olympic Committee by Thursday's deadline, kicking off arguably the most glamorous Olympic bid contest in history.

With Paris, London, Madrid and New York leading the field, the bidders sent replies to a detailed IOC questionnaire covering key issues such as venues, financing, security, transportation, political support and accommodation.

"This is the start of the campaign in a real sense," British IOC member Craig Reedie said.

An IOC panel will study the responses to determine whether the cities meet the criteria for hosting the world's biggest sports festival.

In May, the IOC executive board will decide whether to accept all nine as official bid cities or trim the field to around half a dozen. The full IOC will select the host city in July next year in Singapore.

The complete list of candidates: Havana; Istanbul, Turkey; Leipzig, Germany; London; Madrid, Spain; Moscow; New York; Paris, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"We are delighted to see that all nine applicant cities have returned their dossiers on time," IOC president Jacques Rogge said. "There is still a long way to go until the election of the host city in July 2005. We wish good luck to all nine cities and look forward to a fair competition."

front-runners

Though much can change over the next 18 months, the current signs point to Paris as the city to beat. London and Madrid are other strong European contenders, with New York and Rio also in the mix.

Geography favors Europe in 2012 after the 2008 Summer Olympics in Asia (Beijing) and 2010 Winter Games in North America (Vancouver).

But most IOC members are focusing on next summer's games in Athens and haven't started looking ahead to 2012 yet.

"I don't think there is a favorite," Norwegian member Gerhard Heiberg said. "I hear Paris, I hear New York, I hear London. There is a lot of speculation for the time being, but it's much too early."

great fanfare

The submission of bid documents is being marked with great fanfare in some cities, particularly London and Paris.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was expected to attend a ceremony yesterday at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, where officials will unveil bid details for the first time. French officials will hold a news conference at the Eiffel Tower.

London, which last staged the Olympics in 1948, launched an advertising campaign Thursday featuring some of the city's best known landmarks. The posters feature a hurdler clearing Tower Bridge and a woman high jumper soaring over the London Eye ferris wheel under the slogan "Leap for London."

The British bid, led by American businesswoman Barbara Cassani, is centered on a proposed main Olympic complex -- including an 80,000-seat stadium -- on regenerated land in east London. There are also plans for tennis at Wimbledon, triathlon in Hyde Park and the soccer final at the new Wembley stadium.

Paris is considered especially strong after its successful hosting of soccer's World Cup in 1998 and last summer's world track and field championships. Members may feel Paris, which hasn't hosted the Olympics since 1924, has paid its dues after failed attempts for the 1992 and 2008 games.

The Paris bid proposes two main Olympic zones -- in the north of the city around the Stade de France and west around the Roland Garros tennis complex.

spanish contender

Madrid, the only major European capital which has never hosted the games, has strong credentials and should count on sizable support from the Latin American bloc in the IOC. But Barcelona hosted the games in 1992, making it difficult for Spain to get the games again so soon.

The Olympics have never been staged in South America, giving Rio a strong selling point with IOC members eager to spread the games around the world. But Brazil's economic and crime problems could be a factor.

New York was once considered a sentimental choice after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but has a number of handicaps -- reluctance to take the Olympics to North America two years after Vancouver's Winter Games, an absence of natural bloc support and general anti-American sentiment.

This week, British bookmaker William Hill listed London as 6-4 favorite, followed by Paris at 7-4, Madrid 11-2, New York 9-1, Rio 10-1, Leipzig and Moscow 16-1, and Havana and Istanbul at 50-1. But London's favorite status is based on British betting patterns and not inside information.

assessment in may

The immediate question is how many cities will survive the IOC assessment in May.

Rogge has repeatedly said all nine could be retained, breaking with recent practice of eliminating several cities to create a short list of finalists.

If there is a cut, Havana, Leipzig and Istanbul would be likely casualties.

Once the field is finalized, an IOC evaluation commission will visit the cities to inspect the bids and compile a detailed report for IOC members. Since the Salt Lake City scandal, members are barred from visiting bid cities.

Heiberg, who headed the evaluation panel for the 2010 winter bids, said some cities should be dropped to keep the 2012 process manageable.

"I hope the board will reduce the number to four, five or six," he said. "We need to have the courage to do that."
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