Long before any athletes compete at an Olympic Games, the host
city has already won a major competition of its own. It has won the right to hold the event. And that usually means beating many other great cities.

 

To win the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing had to beat nine cities in all, but had four main competitors: Istanbul, Osaka, Paris and Toronto.

 

To make a final selection, members of the International Olympic Committee voted. Actually, they voted twice. That is because the voting keeps going until one city has more than half of all the votes (in this case 52 votes or more).

 

After the first vote, Osaka was removed because it had the fewest votes. The second round of voting decided the winner. And the winner was… Beijing, easily. Here’s how the final vote went.

 

Beijing 56 votes

Toronto 22 votes

Paris 18 votes

Istanbul 9 votes

 

On 6 July 2005 it was announced that London will be the 2012 Olympic City.

 

Can you imagine how much work goes into preparing a city for the Olympic Games? Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Olympics way back in 2001. The decision was made so long ago because it takes years for a city to prepare.

 

When the Olympic Games are being held, tens of thousands of visitors arrive in the host city at the one time. All of these people need places to stay, reliable transport (to get them to and from competitions) and security wherever they go.

 

An Olympic city must also have world class venues for the athletes to compete in. For Beijing, that meant building four brand new venues.

 

Hosting the Olympic Games gives a city a great chance to show itself off to the world, so it has to look great. That can mean cleaning up, fixing or constructing hundreds of city streets and buildings. What a job!