What odds London for the Olympics?

Bookmaker, Ladbrokes, has announced the odds it is offering on any one of ten applicants to host the 2012 Olympic Games, actually winning.

Paris is favourite at 2/1, followed by both London and New York at 3/1, Toronto 8/1, Madrid 10/1, Leipzig 14/1, Rio de Janeiro 14/1, Moscow 16/1, Sao Paulo 20/1 and Havana 200/1.Paris - which officially announced it will bid for the 2012 Olympics today - last hosted the Games in 1924 and was shortlisted for both the 1992 and 2008 Games, losing out to Barcelona and Beijing respectively.

London has played host to the Games in both 1908 - when it took the place of first choice Rome after the latter withdrew due to the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius - and 1948, when no other city was willing to do it. The Games of 1944, which it had been scheduled to host, was cancelled because of the war. London has never bid for the Games in the past.New York has never hosted the Games before, nor been shortlisted for it. The most recent Olympic Games held in the US was in Atlanta in 1996, widely felt to be disappointing.

Toronto has not bid yet and will only do so if Vancouver loses its bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. It lost out to Atlanta for the 1996 Games and Beijing for those of 2008. The last Canadian Games was in Montreal in 1976.Madrid has never hosted the Games before, although it was shortlisted for the 1972 event which subsequently went to Munich. Spain's most recent Games was in Barcelona in 1992.

The choice of Leipzig - rather than favourite, Hamburg - to represent a German bid to host the 2012 Games is believed within the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to be a political gesture to promote the former East Germany. It has neither hosted nor been shortlisted for the Games in the past, the most recent German event being in Munich in 1972. Berlin was shortlisted for the 2000 Games, which eventually went to Sydney.Moscow last hosted the Olympic Games in 1980, an event memorable for its being boycotted by a number of nations protesting about the recent Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Prior to 1980, the city was shortlisted for the 1976 Games which went to Montreal, but has otherwise not bid in the past.

Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo and Havana have not yet committed themselves to bidding. Rio bid for the 2004 Games but was not shortlisted, Sao Paolo has never bid and Havana bid for the 2008 event but did not make the shortlist.The timetable for cities interested in bidding to hold the 2012 Olympic Games commences with the 15 July 2003 deadline for the IOC to receive bids.

On 15 January 2004 the cities are required to complete an IOC questionnaire on such topics as infrastructure, transport and security and in June 2004 the IOC will decide which of them can go forward as candidates.Formal bids from the candidate cities have to be received by the IOC by 15 November 2004 and in February/March 2005 the IOC evaluation committee visits each city.

In May 2005 the committee will publish its report, this being followed by the announcement of the name of the winning city at the IOC Congress in Singapore on 6 July 2005.