London's week of pleasure and pain

How the bid was won - Seb's spirited leadership made all the difference, admits swayed voter

The unbridled joy at pipping Paris to become host city for the 2012 Games, surely the defining moment in British sporting history, was wretchedly soured by the horror of the happenings some 12,000 miles away. It was simply beyond the imagination of anyone here.

Amid the outrage and heartfelt sympathies expressed so emotionally, not least by London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, came an almost guilty feeling of relief; the awful realisation that had it occurred 48 hours earlier London's dream might have been a nightmare scenario, costing them the Games. It was certainly a possibility, despite the assurances given subsequently by the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, that the Olympic movement would never bow to, or be influenced by, terrorism.

Significantly, a question asked during the bid presentations by the IOC's resident inquisitor, Prince Albert of Monaco, about the recent Madrid bombings, may well have damaged the aspirations of the Spanish capital. A number of IOC members are known to have privately expressed their own concern, and similar reservations in the light of Thursday's attack might well have done for London, too.

Thankfully, that is now academic. London will become the first city to host the Games three times and no one can snatch the wondrous prize away, unless there is a disastrous foul-up along the way. That will not happen as long as Coe's hand remains firmly on the tiller. "We guarantee these will not be a Games where anyone will be biting their fingernails until the last minute," said Livingstone.

Two images of Livingstone remain etched in the memory. One is of him hugging David Beckham when the result was announced, as if they were celebrating a winning World Cup goal; the other was later as he embraced tragedy, eyes brimming angrily with tears in delivering a message of support to the London team here and his citizens back home that was as moving and emotional as Coe's own gold medal-winning address to the IOC.

Whatever one may think of him as a politician, or a mayor, here he attained similar Olympian heights to Coe, a one-time fellow parliamentarian of a different hue. There is little doubt that Coe's own political experience, allied to his status as an Olympic legend, was instrumental in putting across the message that clinched the fourth-round majority of four votes from members who had been expected to reward Paris for their persistence.

Livingstone, who has had differences with Tony Blair in recent years, now says of the Prime Minister's own crucial contribution: "I cannot think of any [other] national leader who would have got off a plane and spent three days talking to one person after another to achieve that goal. He is entitled to share our joy."

London won because they played not only Livingstone's Regeneration Game but Coe's New Generation Game, putting emphasis firmly on youth as the salvation of the Olympic movement.

Coe said winning the Games for London was "on a different planet" to winning his two Olympic gold medals, and the quality of his leadership here was reflected in a tribute from one IOC member who was swayed into supporting London, the Italian Ottavio Cinquanta. "For me it was the spirit of Sebastian Coe. His passion made all the difference. He spoke from the heart." Coe, who did not watch the rival presentations, instead loudly playing CDs from his jazz collection in his hotel room, will now hit the ground running, as he always did.

He stays on as president of Logoc, an acronym with which the world will become rather familiar over the next seven years. It stands for London Olympic Games Organising Committee. Coe promises to keep much of the winning team in place, most notably his lieutenant, Keith Mills, although there will be key personnel recruited from overseas. Several Australians involved in organising the best-ever Olympics, Sydney 2000, were already on board during London's bid campaign. "Keith will of course stay," says Coe. "He is a star. But we have yet to determine the roles. We will seek out people who have a track record for delivering on time and to budget."

A few hundred metres along the quayside from the London knees-up, where even a chilled-out Princess Anne seemed ready to launch in to "The Lambeth Walk", the French were having their own post-vote shindig, though it was by necessity a wake. Edith Piaf's "No regrets" did not seem particularly apposite. There was champagne, of course, though the taste was flat and it was sipped with undisguised bitterness. "We were shafted by [Juan Antonio] Samaranch," complained their communications chief, Jérôme L'Enfant.

Coe smiled enigmatically when this was relayed to him: "They're wrong. They may have been shafted by us, but not by Samaranch."

However, the electoral pattern, with the bulk of the Madrid votes which had seen the Spanish lead at the second-round stage swinging behind London, suggested the probability of alliance engineered by the former IOC president and Coe, whom Samaranch admires and always hoped might be IOC president one day (and after Coe's triumph here he could still be right).

But Paris messed up by not having a significant black presence to counter London's multi-cultural, athlete-dominated team, with 20 African votes up for grabs, and no female in the front-row line-up in an age when Rogge is pushing the IOC towards a far less chauvinistic composition. Clearly, Paris's outdated Olympic ethos has to reinvent itself.

But the greatest renaissance will be in east London. Said Livingstone: "There are many terrible problems in the East End, which has the highest level of poverty in Britain, the highest level of unemployment and the greatest level of pollution. This will be the key to unlock them."

As he spoke, Gianna Angelopoulos, high priestess of the Athens Games, wafted by, looking a million dollars after her recent illness, which many believe was brought on by the stress of running her show. She was here to present the final report of the 2004 Olympics, and said how pleased she was for London, "a city I love". But she had a warning for her friend Coe: "Bidding for the Games is one thing, but organising them is much harder work. Be prepared to sweat, to bang tables."

Coe says he is ready to do so: "These have been the glamour days. Now comes the hard graft." Inevitably there will be seven-year hitches, with Olympic bills to be passed in Parliament and paid by the public. But if what has happened in Sing-apore is any indication, it will be worth it. "Seb has proved himself a true statesman. He was made for this moment," said Jonathan Edwards, one of London's high-profile ambassadorial team. "At last the penny has dropped in respect of what sport adds to the fabric of a nation."

At the morning media conference, bottles of Perrier had been placed in front of the London team to refresh them after their partying. Even Jacques Chirac may have found this rather hard to swallow. Alas, more sobering cold water was about to dampen the elation, and London must wait until the clouds have cleared again before starting to deliver the crock of gold which has appeared so magically at the end of their Olympic rainbow.