New York carries US Olympic hopes

Boost for NYC following the horror of the 9/11 attacks

New York has been chosen as the United States' candidate to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

The decision to favour the city over a rival bid from San Francisco was made by the US Olympic Committee at its annual meeting in Colorado Springs.

Each city had an hour to make their final presentation. New York laid out an ambitious multi-billion dollar plan, saying it was the only city with the resources and security to stage the world's largest show.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was "humbled" by the decision

Holding the triathlon in Central Park and boxing matches at Madison Square Garden are among its proposals for staging the games.

One of the city's main selling points in its proposal was that no venue would be more than 20 miles (32 kilometres) from the Olympic village.

New York's delegation included former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, but the team insisted that it did not want to play the sympathy card following the 11 September 2001 terror attacks.

Instead, they focused on the city's cultural diversity and "can-do" attitude.

However, New York would have to build or renovate most of the venues, and there are also questions about traffic and transport facilties for athletes.

But in the end, it was decided that the Big Apple was the city with the best chance of convincing the International Olympic Committee to award the 2012 Games to the US.

The 2008 Olympics is to be held in Beijing.

Final decision

New York now faces an international field, which could include Toronto, Paris, Rome and Moscow.

The International Olympic Committee will select the venue for the 2012 summer Olympics in 2005.

The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, hailed the decision to pick his city and said he would now set to work persuading the IOC.

"We have to make the case to the IOC that the Olympic athletes and all of the world's people that want to watch the athletes will be best served by having the games in New York," he said.

The US last hosted a summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996.