Decision on 2012 comes today

SINGAPORE — Longtime favorite Paris began the final pitches in the bidding for the 2012 Olympics, saying it had learned from past defeats and come up with the right formula for an ideal games. The voting results are expected today at 7:30 a.m. Eastern time.

The French capital, led by president Jacques Chirac, made the first of the final 45-minute presentations of the five cities engaged in the most glamorous and hotly contested bid race in Olympic history. The other candidates are London, New York, Madrid and Moscow.

Paris goes in as the perceived favorite and London a strong challenger. New York and Madrid would be surprise winners, while Moscow is a long shot.

But IOC members said the race remains tight, wide open and impossible to call. Much could depend on the impact of the presentations and the vagaries of the round-by-round secret voting procedure.

The IOC will vote by secret ballot to select a winner.

Paris is bidding for the third time in 20 years after defeats for the 1992 and 2008 Olympics — and the IOC tends to reward persistence. The French capital has a ready-to-go Olympic stadium in the Stade de France and embraces the IOC’s blueprint for controlling the size and cost of the games, including 13 proposed temporary venues.

“France is intent on offering the world unforgettable Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Chirac told the delegates. “The heart of Paris and the heart of France are beating in unison in the hope of becoming Olympic host in 2012.

“You can put your trust and faith in France, you can trust the French, you can trust us.”

Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe said the city had learned from its failed bids for the 1992 and 2008 games.

“Each experience has taught us something and each disappointment has only served to reinforce our determination,” he said. “We have always endeavored to improve our performance.”

Delanoe said Paris had “totally taken account” the IOC’s recommendations for downsizing the Olympics, giving developing countries and smaller cities a chance of hosting the games in the future.

“In effect we have conceived games which are not wasteful or disproportionate but rather games based on efficiency and values,” he said.

The Paris presentation featured a slick video directed by film director Luc Besson. It began with a bird’s eye view of the city, with the camera floating over famous landmarks and the five Olympic rings sweeping up the Champs Elysees and encircling the Eiffel Tower.

New York was next on the presentation list, followed by Moscow, London and Paris.

With the race so close, the presentations could carry more weigh than ever.

“It’s like going for an interview for a job,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said. “You can send the best C.V., ultimately your boss will hire you because of what you can express, what you can say, your body language and the confidence you can exude. It is the same with the candidate cities.”

Rogge said the vote could be similar to 1993 when Sydney defeated Beijing 45-43 in the final round to land the 2000 Olympics. He even raised the possibility of a tie vote.

“The most intriguing thing will be if I have to give the deciding vote,” Rogge told the Associated Press. The IOC president only votes in the case of a deadlock.

The result could hinge not so much on the technical merits of the bids but on less tangible factors such as politics, emotion and self-interest among the 100 or so IOC members.

Recent host city elections were driven by defining issues. But the 2012 race offers an unprecedented field of world-class cities, all capable of hosting good games. None has a built-in sentimental advantage.

London, which last held the games in 1948, portrays itself as the city on the move — timing its finish in the mold of the last-lap kicks of bid leader and two-time Olympic 1,500-meter champion Sebastian Coe.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton flew in to join Muhammad Ali as a high-profile booster of New York’s bid, which won the approval of the IOC executive board for its new stadium plans. Last month, a state board rejected a proposed stadium in Manhattan; New York officials quickly devised plans for a stadium in Queens.

Madrid, the wild card of the race, benefits from the lobbying efforts of former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch and the strong royal links with King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. But Madrid could be hindered by the fact that Spain held the Olympics in 1992 in Barcelona.

Moscow, which hosted the games in 1980, contends that hosting the 2012 Games would accelerate democracy and change in post-Soviet Russia. President Vladimir Putin will speak publicly in English for the first time when he appears in a taped video message as part of Moscow’s presentation.

The election procedure could cause surprises. Voting goes round by round until one city obtains a majority. A first round win is considered unlikely; the maximum would be four rounds. The key to victory is picking up votes from cities which go out.