2012 Summer olympics

[gbelday]

Congrats London!! New York

[Dhruv]

New York never really had a shot. Maybe next time a North American city has a chance though if someone from Central America or South America will make a bid they should win hands down.

The French lost despite the jabs at the quality of food in the UK by Jacques.

[BSharma]

I would have preferred New York City from a personal point of view but London deserves to host the Games and was my second choice. London hosted the Summer Games in 1948 and it will be 64 years before it gets another opportunity.

[Triple N]

new york ppl didnt want the games to be held there and for good reason too...the traffic situation coulda gone out of hand and the whole of the city would have become overcrowded because of the games...btw i think the french have had a raw deal...they deserved it (just my op.)

[Red_Indian]

Why did Paris lose out? Seems that back handed jab of the British about the Paris olympic stadium worked (amongst other things ofcourse).

I'm sure there's good old fashioned "horse trading" which goes behind the scenes. Oh well, call me a cynic.

[BSharma]

I'm sure there's good old fashioned "horse trading" which goes behind the scenes. Oh well, call me a cynic.

Kunal, you have spoken the truth.

[gvhvhg]

I had thought all along that London would win, even though Paris was the favorite. I supported the New York bid simply because I have never been in a candidate city and I think New York is the most mulitcultural city in the world; ideal for the Olympics.

With that being said I knew there was absoultley no shot and I was extremely dissapointed with the way New Yorkers embraced the bid. Nobody really cared. Yesterday I wanted to go to Rockefeller Center, nobody wanted to go with me. If you look at the turnout at Rockefeller Center versus the turnout in London it is clear that London deserved it more.

People on these ridiculously right-winged news stations here are bashing the French and expressing how glad they are that the French lost. They are calling the loss "another finger in the eye of Chirac" and "a rejection of the French view of the world." It is pathetic that these people need something like this to happen so that they can indulge in some more french bashing.

[Dhruv]

Paris lost by 4 votes. Yesterday the day before the vote Chirac critisised British food/culture saying that in Europe only Finns were worse. Finland had a couple of votes in the elections which could have made a difference. Maybe he should have read a book on How to make friends and influence people esp so close to a vote that could have neem very tight.

Apparantely, the Brits and the Spanish had a deal in that if they reached the finals and the other didn't they would "recommend" to their voters to vote for the other party. The French bids in previous Olympics have been very arrogant, aloof and have given the general idea that "we are better than everybody". That is why they've lost twice in recent times. They changed tactics for this election being a little less arrogant and even had one whole sentence in a second language, English, in their presentation this time around but it seems it wasn't enough. The Brit presentation was very slick focussing on children and upliftment and all that jazz (playing on sentimentality) That along with last minute schmoozing in the last two-three days, where I'd take Tony Blair over Jacques Chirac any day stole it for the Brits.

[BSharma]

IMHO New York's bid for the 2012 Olympics never got off the ground for several reasons:

1. Most countries probably do not feel that fool-proof safety measures could be in place in post-Sept. 2001 New York City. NYC would be a prime target for the terrorists unless the world would be very different in 2012 than what it is now.

2. Most Arab countries and "Islamic" countries would have trouble getting visas for their population to visit NYC for the Games.

3. The US government would be hesistant to allow many people from "Islamic" countries to see the summer games in USA.

4. The world views China in a better light than USA, and many countries must have voted against NYC for this reason. Many people across the globe feel that Jacques Chirac's arrogance is only second to that of George W.

5. The 1996 Atlanta and 2002 Salt Lake City bids were marred by corruption of the US Olympic organizers and their illegal activities to get the votes. I wonder how much these two incidents affected the interaction of the NYC organizers with the voting members of other countries.

[BSharma]

The first casualties of the 2012 Olympics - baseball and softball.

A secret ballot was held and baseball and softball were booted out. Another voting will take place shortly to find replacements - rugby, golf, squash are in contention. I hope that it is not rugby but I have a feeling that it will get the nod. India will have better chances for a medal in squash and golf in 2012.

[BSharma]

International Olympic Committee (IOC) members rejected proposals to replace the axed sports (baseball and softball) from 2012 Olympics with two from rugby sevens, golf, squash, karate and roller sports.

[jayakris]

By the way, the tennis events will be held at Wimbledon on grass courts! .. How about that, eh?

Wonder who would be there in 2012 to represent us in tennis. Karan? Somdev? Jeevan? Vivek? Rupesh? Yuki?

Sania could be past her prime (in women's tennis) by then, I guess! ... Harsh would be 32 and Prakash would be 29 ..

Anyway, hope we will have somebody who knows grass by then. (By the way, we ARE having a grasscourt nationals again this year!)

[OK, who wants to guess about how fast China would put in place the first grasscourts in their country?]

Jay

PS: I am moving this thread to the right forum - Olympics/other-sports, not general chit-chat ..

[gbelday]

PS: I am moving this thread to the right forum - Olympics/other-sports, not general chit-chat ..

Jay, I was going to put in in the Olympics/other-sports thread originally but then realized that it had nothing to with Indian olympic efforts. But I guess it makes sense to be here now...

[Indian]

Should have included golf and squash. Should have given India a better chance to improve on customary 1 medal.

[BSharma]

Finally it came down to squash and karate from the list of seven sports to replace baseball and softball, and neither of them could get the required number of votes.