France's Two Century Losing Streak Continues

To quote Al Bundy, it is good to hate the French.

Apparently, the International Olympic Committee agrees -- at least, that's how it looks now that our favorite champions of surrender have seen Paris topped by London in the race for the 2012 Olympics...

London edged out Paris in the hotly contested race to host the 2012 Olympics. The British capital, which last had the games in 1948 while continental Europe was rebuilding in the aftermath of World War II, upset Paris 54-50 on the fourth ballot Wednesday.

"This is our moment," said London bid leader Sebastian Coe, a former Olympic middle-distance champion. "It's massive. It's huge. This is the biggest prize in sport."

It was also a victory laced with political significance, with Prime Minister Tony Blair getting the better of French President Jacques Chirac. Both leaders came to Singapore to lobby for the bids before flying to the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.

"Many people do reckon that London is the greatest city in the whole world at the moment," an exultant Blair said after hearing the result. "I couldn't bear to watch the final bit of it. It's not often in this job that you punch the air and do a little jig and embrace the person next to you."

London, which also held the games in 1908, becomes the first three-time Olympic host city.

It was a devastating defeat for Paris, which expected to win but has now lost three Olympic bids in 20 years. Paris, which hasn't staged the Olympics since 1924, also came up short for the 1992 and 2008 games.

"I'm very disappointed," French Sports Minister Jean-Francois Lamour said. "I feel there's an empty hole in front of me. I'm almost at the bottom. Why didn't they pick up our concept, our promotion, our strategy? This is a misunderstanding because I can tell you our work was the best."

Paris had been widely seen as the front-runner throughout the two-year race but struggled with the burden of being favorite and ran a cautious campaign.

The French? Cautious? I'm amazed.

Jokes aside, it's pretty clear that French President Jacques Chirac screwed up when he decided to insult the Brits this week. In case you missed it, the French President decided to make a few cracks about British food...

Jacques Chirac stirred the pot at a meeting in Russia on Sunday when he joked to Vladimir Putin and Gerhard Schröder that the British could not be trusted and worse food was only found in Finland.

The French president declared that the only thing the British have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease, the French daily Libération reported.

Mr Chirac then reportedly said: "You can't trust people who cook as badly as that. After Finland, it's the country with the worst food."

I'm guessing the two votes from Finland on the IOC may not have gone Chirac's way. In any case, the only way one would have enjoyed this more would have been if this was a week later and tomorrow was Bastille Day.