117th IOC Session

The board approved Beijing's request to hold the equestrian events in Hong Kong, which is a separate NOC from mainland China in the "best interests of the competition and the well-being of the horses".

Local sailor Griselda Khng handed an envelope holding the result of the vote to IOC president Jacques Rogge, who announced: "The International Olympic Committee has the honor of announcing, that the games of the 30th Olympiad, in 2012, are awarded to the city of London."

[2] Prior to the voting, baseball, softball, modern pentathlon, taekwondo and fencing were considered as most likely to be dropped.

[citation needed] IOC President Jacques Rogge has been a keen supportive of this move, which was one of his agendas since being elected in 2001, while the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) said changing the current set of 28 sports risked changing the "magic combination of team sports and individual sports", attributing one of the success factors of the Olympic games to the current programme.

Any sport that would get a simple majority of "nay" would be dropped from the Olympic program in 2012, but would remain eligible for readmission in future Games.

The decision has triggered dismay in some nations such as the United States where both sports originated from, and Canada,[5] where both have a strong following.

That night at The Oriental Singapore, then SNOC president and defence minister, Teo Chee Hean threw a banquet.

The Guardian reported on their operatic rendition "Two Singaporean sopranos and a tenor dressed like a maître d' subjected the Olympic anthem, a tune whose primary virtue is to be heard only once every four years, to a fearful mauling.