The London tactic had been to court Madrid's supporters in the hope of securing their votes should the Spanish capital be eliminated. Mr Blair, who left Singapore last night after three months of frenetic campaigning and two days of last-gasp courting of IOC members, had earlier promised work would start on preparing the games "within 48 hours" of a successful bid.
Today the prime minister told reporters: "I couldn't bear to watch [the final announcement]. It is not often in this job that you get to punch the air and do a little jig and embrace the person standing next to you. Mr Blair said Paris had lodged a very strong bid but that London offered a great legacy for the city, the country and the Olympic movement.
He admitted that when he arrived in Singapore he felt London had only an "outside chance" but said the bid had succeeded because the British people were behind it.
Mr Blair denied the win would make the G8 summit, starting tonight, more difficult, with a disappointed French president, Jacques Chirac, learning the result while en route from Singapore to Scotland. In a statement released by his office, Mr Chirac sent his congratulations to London and praised the "fair play" shown by the Paris bid team. The statement said: "The head of state congratulates the city of London David Beckham and a host of sporting celebrities have been in Singapore pressing for a London games.
London last hosted the Olympics in and will become the first city to host sport's biggest event three times. An emotional Beckham was in the hall to hear the result and said later that it was an "incredible" victory. Today's result was also a huge victory for Lord Coe, who transformed a bid that was originally seen as something of a joke. In an IOC evaluation report last year, London was ranked third in the race behind Paris and Madrid and its transport system was castigated as "obsolete".
No-one will ever forgot what took place in front of 80, jubilant spectators at London's Olympic Stadium on Saturday, 4 August, Ennis-Hill, the golden girl of Team GB, smashed her own British record to win the heptathlon, Rutherford took gold in the long jump with a fourth-round leap of 8. All in the space of a quite astonishing 44 minutes at a home Games. It came after Britain had already won golds in men's coxless four rowing, women's double sculls and women's cycling team pursuit earlier that day.
In , after winning his fourth straight gold at his fourth Games, Steve Redgrave vowed to never get back in a rowing boat again. But he could not be kept away and, aged 38, teamed up with Matthew Pinsent, James Cracknell and Tim Foster at Sydney to win a lung-busting fifth gold in a thrilling - and emotional - race. The British quartet held off the Italians to win by just 0. In , Sebastian Coe was the world record holder and the overwhelming favourite for the m but got his tactics wrong in the final and his great rival Steve Ovett beat him to the gold.
Coe, stung by only winning silver, had a chance to make amends in Ovett's main event, the m, and took it with a gutsy display, while Ovett had to settle for the bronze. Coe crossing the line with his arms stretched wide and eyes bulging showed how much it meant to him. Their intense rivalry continued until the next Olympics in Los Angeles in what were extraordinary times for British middle-distance running.
Chris Hoy won gold in the kilo time trial in Athens but the event was dropped for Beijing and he had to switch his training to three new events. But that was no problem as "the Real McHoy" powered his way to team sprint gold with Jason Kenny and Jamie Staff and then individual sprint and keirin golds.
The Scot was in a class of his own and became the first Briton in years to win three golds at one Games. At London , Hoy defended his keirin title and also won gold in the team sprint, giving him six golds in his Olympic career, a total later matched by Kenny in Rio.
Kelly Holmes, a former sergeant in the army, had been dogged by injury problems throughout her career but everything she did turned to gold at Athens She claimed a thrilling victory in the m final before securing the m title five days later, becoming the first Briton for 84 years to achieve the Olympic middle-distance double.
It was the her look of sheer joy and disbelief as she crossed the line in the m that was arguably the defining image of the Games. After dominating on his way to gold in Moscow in , Daley Thompson faced a titanic battle against his great rival and world record holder Jurgen Hingsen four years later. Under immense pressure on day two, Thompson threw a personal best in the discus and then all-but sealed his victory in a dramatic pole vault competition, celebrating with a back-flip for good measure.
He strolled his way to gold in the final event, the m, despite Hingsen's world record being there for the taking. An incredibly competitive athlete, Thompson was a maverick, controversially whistling while the national anthem was played during the medal ceremony, but also charismatic and popular.
Gymnast Max Whitlock made history when he won Britain's first-ever Olympic gymnastics gold with victory in the men's floor event in Rio. But one was not enough and two hours later he added a second by beating British team-mate Louis Smith to gold in the men's pommel horse. Whitlock also won a bronze in Brazil and has five Olympic medals in total - he looks well placed to add to his tally in Tokyo. Becky Adlington was just 19 in when she won a stunning m freestyle gold to become the first British woman to take swimming gold since Anita Lonsborough in She pipped American Katie Hoff in a grandstand finish which also saw her team-mate Jo Jackson capture the bronze.
Adlington was in such dazzling form she won a second title five days later, smashing the m world record and becoming the first British swimmer for years to win more than one gold at a Games. Great Britain's women won a first Olympic hockey gold medal by beating defending champions the Netherlands in a dramatic penalty shootout in Rio. The final finished in normal time, with Britain's goalkeeper Maddie Hinch making a string of remarkable saves. And the Dutch, the current world champions, could not beat Hinch in the shootout, which Britain won with Helen Richardson-Walsh and Hollie Webb scoring the decisive penalties.
Nicola Adams took centre stage as women's boxing made its debut at the London Games, years after the men. She showed her class to beat China's world number one lightweight Ren Cancan and become the first female Olympic boxing champion. Four years on in Rio, she beat Cancan again in the semi-finals before outscoring Sarah Ourahmoune of France in the final. And so it became a double first for Adams who also entered the history books as the first female boxer to defend a title.
Laura Trott and Jason Kenny's relationship came to public attention when they sat behind David Beckham at the beach volleyball at London , where they won four golds between them. In Rio, Jason and Laura sealed their status as sporting legends. Jason won three golds, and his sixth in total, to share the record with Sir Chris Hoy as the holder of the highest number of Olympic golds for any British athlete. In return they would receive a proportion of gate receipts.
It was designed to accommodate 66, spectators but could hold as many as , standing on terraces. Over 2, athletes competed in the Games, more than three times the number than had competed at St Louis. A record number of twenty-two nations sent teams and for the first time thirty-seven women were amongst the competitors though Baron Pierre de Coubertin , the French aristocrat who had been the moving spirit behind the revival of the Olympics, was opposed to their participation. The London Olympics were the first games in which medals were awarded to all winners, some previous winners having received only a diploma.
They are the only Olympics in which Great Britain won most medals, with fifty-six golds and medals in total, three times the number won by the second-placed team, that of the United States. Its inclusion at Paris in had attracted only two teams, the team representing France losing narrowly to Britain. The London Games were not without controversy.
At the opening ceremony, performed by Edward VII on July 13th, the team from Finland refused to carry a flag when they were told that they would have to march under the standard of Tsarist Russia. This incident was the precursor of many arguments between the Americans and their British hosts who, by agreement with the International Olympic Committee, provided all the judges and timekeepers.
The disagreements reached a climax in the final of the metres which was contested by three Americans and one Englishman, Wyndham Halswelle. Halswelle was adjudged to have been obstructed by the American J. Carpenter, who was disqualified. Further controversy followed in the marathon on the final day of competition. In previous Olympics the length of the race had varied slightly, around forty-two kilometres, but in the King requested that the race begin on the lawns of Windsor Castle so that his grandchildren the future Edward VIII and George VI amongst them could see the start of the race.
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