Well then, just got into the office after making a stop at Rockefeller Center, the official viewing site of Olympic Decision Day. It was all a pretty straight forward affair. The host introduced each of the candidate city's bid video (hey charters, especially Zan... what a nightmare eh?), allowed it to play then got the president of the IOC to speak and announce the host of the 2012 Olympics. Not too full of pomp, which was a good thing at 7:30 in the morning. If you can't make out what the additional tile on the parody logo is, it's a guy holding a gun. Welcome to New York hehehe.

If the decision was based on the videos alone, I think NYC would have placed third. London had the best one, as always full of tasteful humour especially at the end with the vaulter falling into the cement mix. It more easily connects with the audience than any of the other videos. Next was Paris which was more relevant to the games, the jet fighter shot was pretty cool. NYC I thought was the most artistic but really showed nothing related to the Olympics except for a trip through the various neighborhoods making up the city. I'm trying to link to all the videos, but every site is pretty much down right now except for NYC's. Hammered...

Bid Videos:
If anyone has a link to all the bid videos in their entirety let me know!
London, click on Sport at Heart (it was edited down for the bid, much better in my opinion).
New York, click on Bugler's Dream.
Paris
Madrid, a mix and cropping of the Olympic Passion and We'll Be There videos.
Moscow

Bid Books:
I suggest you get a download manager before proceeding, wish they would have offered the bid book as one full file in addition to the seperate sections.
London
New York
Paris
Madrid
Moscow

Congratulations are in order for London, honestly the only reason I wanted the games in New York was a pretty selfish one. Wrestling (both styles) and Judo aren't very popular sports so naturally they don't get much coverage. In addition, NBC's coverage of the games in Athens was just plain awful. Having the games in New York would have at least given me an opportunity to catch the events live. I remember when it was in Atlanta, I had to stay up till 2am or so everynight to catch the Wrestling replays. At least NBC had coverage back then... Anyone want to visit Beijing in 2008?

A refresher below, the candidate logo and the new one introduced after they were picked as hosts. Not exactly a 'New Beijing, Great Olympics' type of logo, especially when you are reaching back in time for a jade seal. Guess they didn't pick a new slogan yet.


Cheerio!