Frenchy

<pedant mode> Accent aigüe, not grave. Touché (not touchè) <pedant mode>

Thanks for the offer baron! Don't call us. We'll call you!

To be fair, only a minority like hektor, who doesn't live here btw, think of France as he does. The rest of us are quite proud of our country in spite of some of her failings. As for doing good, I agree that organising a SOG would have been quite uplifting. That's precisely why we bid in 2005 for 2012. Unfortunately the ioc preferred playing politics and Russian roulette rather than giving the games to the only city who was genuinely passionate about its bid. That was then. This is now. Today everyone here believes that the present political, economic and social climate isn't conducive to a successful bid for 2024. Too bad........

hektor, You sound like Donald Rumsfeld and his dim-witted president back in 2003!! (remember “the French don’t have a word for entrepreneur” ? ) TGV, la carte à puce (smart card), ITER. . . . Hardly the achievements of a museum country! As for dynamism EDF, Vivendi, Orange etc are hoovering up utility companies the world over. I fail to see, like most of my countrymen, what a SOG would add in the immediate future.

If there’s one lesson we’ve learnt from previous experience it’s that bidding for a SOG is a filthy, dirty and brutal affair (2005 is the perfect example) with the prize, usually but not always, going to the filthiest, dirtiest and most brutal bidder. Quite frankly it’s a bother we can well do without. Besides, holding a SOG means three things: - locking down a city for two months and turning it into a target for every loony terrorist on the globe - handing the keys to a group of men and women, the ioc, who haven’t been the friendliest of people to us (Rogge gave an interview back in September 2005 to l’Equipe Magazine in which he basically spat in the eye of the French bidding team. We’re still reeling from that interview today….) - and spending an inordinate amount of money for the privilege, money that will never be recouped whatever some might say. It’s a ‘privilege’ we can well do without in the present climate. There are also the domestic issues. François Hollande was elected with the smallest of majorities in 2012 and his only solutions to France’s economic woes were to increase taxes. So much so that after twelve months in office he has reached a level of unpopularity which it took Sarkozy four years to reach previously! With local and mayoral elections looming in 2014 the last thing the French elector wants is new spending. Any candidate who so much as mentions the word ‘Olympics’ runs the real risk of being voted out of office! Neither is being a frontrunner or a favourite necessarily the cosy trip it’s made out to be as we well know. When you’re a favourite you seem to be spending more time fending off attacks than trying to put your message through to the ioc. Again, why bother? It’s not like we really needed the games after all. We might be happy to host the games, even be proud to host them but don’t really need them. Paris is already the most visited city in the world. It’s the capital of style and glamour. It’s where every woman wants to be taken to! It’s the city that put the ‘A’ in A-list! So it’s not like we needed to be on the map. We’re already there! If you add to the equation the fact that France already hosts a bevy of internationally known sporting events (TDF, Roland-Garros, 24h du Mans, le Vendée Globe, la Route du Rhum, Grand Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, etc, not forgetting our role in football, rugby, handball….) the argument for going through the mangle of bidding then hosting an event such as the SOG really starts to lose its attraction. Then again, I may be completely wrong and Paris will be bidding for 2024!!

Forget it. There will be no WOG in France until there's been a SOG in Paris. Which - for the moment - is no time soon......

We ARE talking about John "$35,000" Coates? http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,37411,00.html Hardly a reference....

"Stay or Go?" Why? What's wrong? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/commonwealth_games/delhi_2010/9025907.stm

I can't believe you wrote that!! Read the Charter: "Fundamental Principles of Olympism" (...) Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles." Democracy and the respect for human rights should be the very first condition when choosing a host city.....

Well if that ain't "legacy", I don't know what is!!

...athletes and spectators exposed to dangerous level of smog, researchers have concluded. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/otherspor...rchers-say.html

....are starting to be felt in full. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8135203.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7945832.stm I see the "legacy" is starting to kick in!

Are you insane? What would happen to all those juicy building contracts and backhanders? Over the IOC's dead body, my good man!! As an aside, it would be great if some courageous investigative journalist (not Andrew Jennings, he's thrown in the towel) did some research on the relations between IOC members and the construction industry (nod-nod, wink-wink)

All very wise and proper Jeremie, and I couldn't agree more with what you're saying. Unfortunately it's wishful thinking. Why? Henry Kissinger clearly stated the reasons in September 2005 when asked how he explained Paris' failure to win the 2012 games: "Les Français n'ont pas compris ce qu'est le CIO. Beaucoup de ses membres viennent de pays pauvres." All is said in that one sentence. Differences between winners and losers in the bidding wars are minute. (Beijing lost by 2 votes to Sydney in 1993, PyeongChang 3 votes to Vancouver, Paris 4 votes to London) It's quite clear that IOC members from Third World countries couldn't care two hoots about facilities, legacy et al... They see the games as a rich/white man's event from which they are excluded. Coherent analysis is not for them. They are only interested by what they can gain for themselves and nothing else. As long as the IOC have Third World members in its midst, sadly, nothing will change.....

I couldn't have put it better myself. (without running the risk of being accused of paranoia and sour grapes, that is!) One wonders whatever happened to all those wonderful decision taken in Prague in 2003?