ABSTRACT
On Wednesday, 6 July 2005, the International Olympic Committee’s meeting in Singapore decided to award the 2012 Summer Olympics to London. The decision represented a combination of Eurovision-style partisanship, tactical voting,1 global schmoozing and last minute surprises. London’s coup de grâce, another steal from the French, was a multicultural-faced group of excited East End children, in contrast to the sombre suited Parisian messieurs. Celebrations began in Stratford, the nondescript town centre of the London borough of Newham, and the heart of the prospective Olympic Park. The next day, four suicide bombers killed fi ftysix people, including themselves, in attacks on underground trains and a bus in London. The 2012 celebration party was cut short and thinking inevitably started to focus on the size of the task ahead, with all its attendant problems.
