Fun and Games
04 July 2005. Inspired by .
No-one here considers London a serious Olympic rival. All the coverage is based on Paris vs Madrid, with London somewhere a distant third or fourth in the bidding order. Rumours of an attempt by Coe & co to use tactical voting alongside Madrid to knock out Paris were met with derision here - and a general sense that London already knew it was going to lose.
But something doesn't feel quite right. The TV images of the Madrid delegation heading to Singapore ("we have no plan B" they proudly proclaim - the slogan of the year, it seems) had twice as many student volunteers as besuited professionals. The press packs for the IOC were shown in large white envelopes sealed with brown parcel tape. The small details may not count for much, but as Malcolm Gladwell would no doubt agree, it's all symptomatic of a larger sensation of what feels like a group of over-enthusiastic Rag week organisers bidding to run the space shuttle programme.
Me, I'm sufficiently torn not to mind who gets it. Professionally, I'm a freelance journalist working in Madrid - and would love the short-term extra work that a Spanish win might muster. Personally, I wouldn't trust the Spanish construction industry (and its huggably close links to politicians) further than I can throw an Olympic shotputter. Add in the enormous debts each city has to bear (the IOC of course doesn't take any responsibility for that; part of the deal is that it gets 50% of revenue, not overall balance) and I'd probably rather hand it to Paris, in the name of cheaper brie and champagne.