New York named U.S. candidate for 2012 Olympics
Judith Crosson
The U.S. Olympic Committee on Saturday chose New York City as its candidate to stage the 2012 Summer Olympics after the city put on a flashy presentation that promised triathlon in Central Park and boxing in Madison Square Garden.
The victory sets the stage for the next big competition when the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland chooses the winner in 2005 from among other major world cities such as London, Moscow and Paris. The United States last hosted a Summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg cautioned that the city still had to win against its international rivals.
The decision by the USOC to favor New York's bid over that of San Francisco was made after both cities made presentations, with New York's delegation including former Mayor Rudi Giuliani making the case for the city still reeling from the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
"It is humbling," Bloomberg told a news conference after the announcement.
"This is just a way point on a long road to 2012, the next way point is 2005," he said.
"We have to make the case to the IOC that the Olympic athletes and all of the world's people that want to watch the athletes will be best served by having the games in New York.
"We are committed to do that. We will not disappoint the USOC ... we're going to win in 2005."
Bloomberg forecast an era of major real estate development in his city.
"This is the future of New York City. You're going to see big development on the west side of Manhattan at the same time that we rebuild lower Manhattan and build a memorial that tells everybody what happened to our city on 9/11/01 and why the terrorists have not won and why those people gave their lives for the rest of us."
New York's big building plans were in stark contrast to San Francisco's plan that was based on 80 percent of the venues already in place.
The New York delegation said the city had hosted a number of events soon after the attacks, including last year's New York City Marathon and the opening of the United Nations General Assembly.
About 3,000 people were killed when hijacked airliners were flown into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 last year, demolishing both towers.
USOC President Marty Mankamyer told the ceremony in Colorado Springs that New York had won 132.021 votes from a total of 223.038 possible votes. While there are 123 delegates, votes from athletic groups count for more than other delegates like business leaders.
Mankamyer, the first woman elected to U.S. Soccer Federation's Executive Committee, said she was most impressed by the "compactness" of New York's plan.
One of the city's main selling points in its proposal was that no venue would be more than 32 km from the Olympic village. She said she remembered other Olympics where she had to travel more than she would have liked to get to a venue.
She said the USOC now faced the challenge of winning the nomination in 2005 against its international rivals.
"We begin our hardest task and that is to position this city to win the gold medal. And that means doing a lot of work internationally ... and presenting ourselves worldwide in the best possible image," Mankamyer said.
New York will also have to defuse some strong anti-American sentiment within the IOC, where some members still bristle at being investigated and painted as criminals by a Congressional Committee and the FBI over the Salt Lake City bribery scandal.
Giuliani said during New York's presentation to the USOC: "New Yorkers never give up, they never have and they never will."
A disappointed San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown said after the announcement: "We know that our city is still everybody's favorite destination."
