The Most Important Vote Ever

[Felipe Menegaz]

In your opinion, wich was the most important vote of the Olympic history?

When I read that the 2016 vote was watched by 1 billion people I think that it was very important.

2016

[NYCD 2012]

1988, without it and the 1984 Games, the Olympics wouldn't had survived up to today

[gotosy]

1894 for the 1st Olympiad in Athens (1896) and the 2nd in Paris (1900)

as Paris 1900 was already decided, the idea to hold all the following Games in Athens not happened. (and we have anything to discuss here in this forum )

[wingspread]

This is a very subjective question. What do you mean by 'important'? Is just by the number of people watching the vote/announcement, or by how it impacts the Olympic movement?

While Rio's win is a great moment, I don't think it is the most important vote in Olympic history.

[baron-pierreIV]

In your opinion, wich was the most important vote of the Olympic history?

2016

The most important vote in Olympic history was the vote for Los Angeles 1984. They had no choice. If they wanted to see the Games continue, they had to trust THE ONLY city and organization willing to do it for them THEIR (LA's) way. Without the 1984 Summer Games, it might not have been until 1992 when the Summer Games resumed.

Altho oddly enough, I think the Winter Games might've chugged right along. Except for Denver 1976, there were no great dramas in the execution of Lake Placid 1980, Sarajevo 1984 and Calgary 1988. The next drama was that Barcelona-Albertville horsetrading.

[4seasonscentre]

well the most 'exciting' was probably London 2012 in Singapore 2005. 4 capital cities and 1 kinda capital.

[Roux]

In your opinion, wich was the most important vote of the Olympic history?

When I read that the 2016 vote was watched by 1 billion people I think that it was very important.

2016

That can totally be explained be the historic factor. Rio had a good chance at bringing the games to South America for the first time so people are going to want to see if that happens or not. If the fourth city was some other city like Rome Seoul that has already "been there, done that, got a t-shirt" then it wouldn't have attracted much attention. Also, there's the Obama factor. He's the biggest celebrity in the world, so when his name's attached to something, like the Chicago (his home town) bid, people are going to watch. Trust me. If he was doing something completely stupid like hosting the Golden Globes there'd be a large audience.

[Roux]

well the most 'exciting' was probably London 2012 in Singapore 2005. 4 capital cities and 1 kinda capital.

I have to agree with you on that one. New York, London, and Paris are argueably the three most important cities in the world, and Moscow is pretty important as well.

[thatsnotmypuppy]

I think 2000 was a big one. Would the IOC blindly follow the big money and give the Games to Beijing or would they do the right thing and support the strongest bid - Sydney? The human rights question was raised early on, you had a huge scandal involving the Berlin bid, Manchester and Sydney tried to bury each other, Sydney was working on an underhanded book to discredit Beijing, Manchester was tryiong to tell everyone Sydney really had ccrap weather and they didn't, bribes, death threats and Istanbul gave out little flags.

Monaco was the place to be in late September 1993.

[DannyelBrazil]

When they decided to not host the games always in Greece (in the beggining).

About excitement, 2016 was great.

Emotionally 2004 was great, returning the games to Greece.

And for Brazilians the biggest one was 1956, avoiding Buenos Aires of hosting the first South American Games... LOL

[Rob2012]

From a personal perspective, nothing will beat the 2012 vote.

But I have to be honest and say it was one of the least important votes of recent times. Yeah, so Paris were pissed after every man and his dog expected them to win, but I'm not sure that vote had many long-term consequences.

2016: First time to South America, but the consequence of Chicago leaving first could be with us for years to come. The race itself was a little low key compared to 2012, but its long-term impact on Olympic politics will be greater.

2012: London wins a historic third Games. A fantastic race with many controversies during it, but after it was over, the only real consequence was a miffed French bidding committee. But they're back for 2018, and a Paris bid in the next decade is not unlikely I wouldn't have thought. So no lingering damage or long term consequences.

2008: Picking China. No more needs to be said. This was a hugely important decision.

The 2004 decision to finally give Greece a go, the masterstroke of giving Sydney the nod over Beijing before that, Atlanta's victory and the long term consequences those Games have had, the Winter votes and the Salt Lake scandal etc. etc. have all had their impacts as well.

Compared to these, it's hard to argue that 2012 was an "important" vote in terms of its consequences, but from a personal perspective it will always be the most important for me.

[stir.ts]

The 1984 USOC vote between NYC and LA.

[4gamesandcounting]

There have been so many.

The 2000 Vote gave us the Best games ever

From a personal point of view 2012 was the "biggest vote" if you look at the cities involved.

[Rafa]

1997, when Africa was denied

2013, when CT is awarded the Games.

[baron-pierreIV]

1997, when Africa was denied

2013, when CT is awarded the Games.

Agreed. That may be THE seminal point in all of human sports history!!

[DannyelBrazil]

Guys, I insist the most important decision was to make the Olympic Games a global event by not hosting it every 4 years in Greece, as some wanted in the beggining.

Without this decision, for sure Gamesbids.com would not exist and also the good and bad times we had here would not exist either.

And because of this decision, since the begining of the modern era Olympism, the Olympic Games is a truly a global event.

And it will be more global when African continent get its first games. And it will be amazing also to see the first olympic cauldron lightned in the Middle East or in India.

This decision made the games big.

[olympian]

i would say the 1978 session to award the games to LA was the most important as it catapulted the Olympic Games to where it is now. A big profit machine.

[Kenadian]

I'm not sure if Paris was "voted" as Olympic host for 1900 or if Baron de Coubertin just made sure his reinvention followed him home. He actually wanted Paris 1900 to be the first Modern Olympics, but the Greeks wanted to host and the fledgling IOC of 1894 didn't want to wait 6 years.

[Frenchy]

From a personal perspective, nothing will beat the 2012 vote.

But I have to be honest and say it was one of the least important votes of recent times. Yeah, so Paris were pissed after every man and his dog expected them to win, but I'm not sure that vote had many long-term consequences.

(...)

2012: London wins a historic third Games. A fantastic race with many controversies during it, but after it was over, the only real consequence was a miffed French bidding committee. But they're back for 2018, and a Paris bid in the next decade is not unlikely I wouldn't have thought. So no lingering damage or long term consequences.

(...)

Compared to these, it's hard to argue that 2012 was an "important" vote in terms of its consequences, but from a personal perspective it will always be the most important for me.

2012 was also the "dirtiest" of all bids with the no holds barred/ knuckle grazing/double dealing/secret meetings in the night/gutter press bashing methods used by London against Paris.

2016 by comparison was a gentle-many walk in the park.

Still, as with the Iraq war, the French ended up by having the last laugh....

[Rob2012]

2012 was also the "dirtiest" of all bids with the no holds barred/ knuckle grazing/double dealing/secret meetings in the night/gutter press bashing methods used by London against Paris.

2016 by comparison was a gentle-many walk in the park.

Still, as with the Iraq war, the French ended up by having the last laugh....

Get over yourself.

[adrianme17]

2012 was also the "dirtiest" of all bids with the no holds barred/ knuckle grazing/double dealing/secret meetings in the night/gutter press bashing methods used by London against Paris.

2016 by comparison was a gentle-many walk in the park.

Still, as with the Iraq war, the French ended up by having the last laugh....

such a sore, sore, sore loser - loser!

[Frenchy]

such a sore, sore, sore loser - loser!