Bedlam in Singapore amid last-minute lobbying for 2012 Olympics

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2005

SINGAPORE (AFP) — Political and sporting heavyweights from five of the world's greatest cities staged a frantic final round of lobbying in Singapore as Olympic officials prepared to decide the venue for the 2012 Games.

The International Olympic Committee's (IOC's) annual session was due to open on Tuesday evening, 24 hours before the vote to decide if London, Paris, New York, Madrid or Moscow will host the Games.

With time running out, the lobby at the Raffles City Convention Centre, the venue for the vote, resembled a peak-hour train carriage as representatives of the five cities tried to make last-ditch pleas to IOC delegates.

"I didn't mean to come down here. It's bedlam," one Asian IOC delegate who wanted to avoid the chaos told AFP in the lobby before...