London bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics being selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) when put up against other world cities in a competitive bidding process. On 6 July 2005 at its 117th Session in Singapore, the IOC awarded London the right to host the Games of the XXX Olympiad. The city beat the favourite Paris 54 to 50 on the fourth and final ballot. London is the first city to host the Games three times. At the time of the bid, the budget projection was around £2 billion, but it was later estimated that the true cost would be around £9 billion. The project involved
2001 National Games of China opening ceremony. The ninth national games were hosted soon after Beijing had been successful in its host bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics. As a result, many prominent international guests were invited to the games in Guangzhou, including IOC president Jacques Rogge. The international dimension of the games was increased in comparison to previous years as many of the delegations had appointed foreign-born coaches and foreign referees were invited to the event to improve impartiality judge-based sports. High performances levels were achieved in a number of sports: seven women's weightlifting world records were broken, six Asian records were beaten in