Did London win or Paris lose the 2012 Olympics?

London's surprised elation at winning the 2012 Olympics and Paris's stunned silence were a marked contrast which left open the question: did London win or did strong favourites Paris lose?

The arguments following International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge's announcement on Wednesday that London had won the IOC vote were still reverberating around the IOC session on Thursday.

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London won the final vote instead by a mere four votes, 54-50.

IOC members pointed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair's charm offensive for two days in Singapore just before the vote and bid leader Sebastian Coe's polished and passionate presentation as two vital factors in London's triumph.

But as many were pondering how Paris contrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and many criticised what they perceived as French paralysis in Singapore with little or no lobbying of members and an uninspired presentation to the IOC.

Henri Serandour, the French Olympic chief, took personal responsibility. "Maybe I was a little too easy-going," he said. "Maybe we need a new generation of leaders who will take a stronger line."

National stereotypes appeared to have gone into reverse in Singapore with the British bid team pitching aggressively and the French responding phlegmatically.

When two London bid delegates criticised the Paris showpiece stadium, le Stade de France, as not ideal for athletics, they seemed to be straying dangerously close to the edge of IOC guidelines which demand that other teams' bids and facilities should not be the target of attacks.

GALLIC SHRUG

But Paris gave a Gallic shrug, filed no complaint and the IOC were given no reason to do anything except look the other way.

French President Jacques Chirac breezed into Singapore to play a major role in the Paris presentation but, almost loftily, declined to imitate Blair and sought no one-on-one meetings with voting members.

Irish IOC member Pat Hickey said: "This is down to Tony Blair. If he hadn't come, I'd say that six to eight votes would have been lost...Chirac came far too late"

Thomas Bach of Germany thought Coe had also swung it. "Sebastian Coe was absolutely superb," he said. "His presentation to IOC members was key, I am sure. I am convinced it made the difference because there were many members who arrived in Singapore undecided."

Coe himself thought the vision of a Games for the youth of the world and the passion and teamwork of the London bid had turned the vote around.

He said the IOC evaluation commission's preliminary report last year had made London think hard and change their approach substantially.

"It was a big moment for us," he said. "We had to seize the moment. There were issues we needed to improve on. We had to understand it very quickly and we had till yesterday to get it right."

Paris, by contrast, seemed determined to stay in front by simply avoiding mistakes, which left the team vulnerable to little gaffes, such as Chirac's reported off-the-cuff remarks denigrating British and Finnish cooking.

"That delivered us two Finnish delegate votes," laughed London mayor Ken Livingstone.