The 2012 Olympic Games
 

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At 0730 EST Wednesday, the world will discover who the 117th Session of the International Olympic Committee, meeting in Singapore, will decide to play host to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. While New York has a strong bid, the front runners are considered to be London and Paris. Who will win? Nobody knows, yet...

2006 Winter Games: Turin, Italy
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2008 Summer Games: Beijing, China
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2010 Winter Games: Vancouver, Canada
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2012 Summer Games: London, England!!!
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Moscow's been eliminated. 1:18 to go.

2 seconds later...

New York's gone too!

Yay!!!!!!!!! Despite what the media portrays, I think it would be idiotic to hold the games here in NYC (even though I hope to be long gone from here by 2012 ;) ).

It would have been nice to see the Olympics back onto American soil, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that NYC 2012 probably wasn't the best idea.

Between MSNBC coverage and LJDrama.org, I am up LATE this evening.

Paris and London are the last ones standing now that Madrid's been eliminated.

I'm crossing my fingers for Paris!

Congrats to London!!!!

LOL.

Congrats London!

My mum was pretty excited this morning.

nice for London to have the Olympics again since they haven't been there in a long time!

I hope to be able to go to London for the Olympics. By that time, we should be able to do it. I'm excited.

I hoping it would be London - pay back for all the rellies coming out here in 2010 ;)...

YAY London! One of my fave cities!

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Congratulations, London!!!

God save our gracious Queen!
Long live our noble Queen!
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen.

I also think that since the 2010 Olympics are in Canada, maybe they don't want to have the Olympics in North America again, just 2 years later?

Though I'm happy it's London and not Pairs, NYC2012 was one of our big clients and with this we lose them and a lot of money. :(

Only the French would be THIS pissed about it....

Hey Frenchie, think of this as London getting paid back for helping liberate your ass....twice.

Why are the streets of Paris lined with trees? So the Germans can march in the shade.

Congrats London. Hopefully you'll have the soccer thing figured out by then.

So the English helped liberate Paris twice? Really? When did this happen?

If you're thinking the Napoleonic Wars - well Paris never fell, and if it did it would have fallen to the attacking forces... in this case the British, Dutch, Russians and Prussians.

If you're thinking the Franco-Prussian War - the Prussians/Germans turned Paris over to the French forces, so that the French could deal with the Paris Commune Uprising... so I guess the French liberated it this time.

If you're thinking WWI - well Paris never fell... so no liberators.

If you're thinking WWII - well the Germans surrendered to the 2nd French Armoured Brigade after heavy fighting on the outskirts of Paris... so I guess the French liberated Paris this time too.

EDITED>>> Ooops my bad - the Germans surrendered to the 2nd French Armoured Division commanded by Leclerc (the guy the current French MBT is named after - and not a half bad MBT either).

Ok, strike that...

I guess liberate was the wrong word, but during the two WWs, the English did a lot more than the French to stop our enemy.

Besides, if they just keeled over and let Hitler and Germany come inside, and then the Germans got ran out.....despite violent force or not, wouldn't that be liberating?

Well, back to the topic before I get fleeced again.....

Will the main stadiuum be the new Wembley, Millenium stadium, or a different venue?

Again... during WWI the French suffered proportionaly more casualties than any of the allied powers (roughly three times the total casualities of the American Civil War) - which I guess would be part and parcel of the German strategy of "bleeding France white"; ulitimately with the goal of if not defeating France, then crippling her for "at least a century" (according to Luddendorf).

As for WWII the French weren't the only ones that were completely beaten by the German forces during the 1940 offensive - the list of "defeated" armies included not only the French, but the British, Canadians, Belgians, and Dutch. So to say that they just keeled over and let the Germans in would also be saying that the above nations also allowed that to happen...

There was cheering in the office when we all read that NYC2012 is not happening. The Republican Convention was bad enough, and no one wants to deal with the inevitable beefed-up security.

I got to go to Turin several times to see their preparation for 2006. Amazing.

I think/hope the next city picked to host an Olympics is in South America.

Don't forget the unofficial anthem of England, "Land of Hope and Glory" (to the tune of Elgar's 'Pomp and Circumstance', March No. 1, second movement):

Land of Hope and Glory,
Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee,
Who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider
Shall thy bounds be set;
|: God, who made thee mighty,
Make thee mightier yet. :|