It might go down as one of the biggest comebacks in the history of the Olympics.

Previously written off as an also-ran in the race to host the 2012 Games, London surged in the home stretch Wednesday to outsprint Paris and win the contest by 54 votes to 50. It will thus become the first city to stage the event for the third time.

For Prime Minister Tony Blair, who added ballast to the bid by spending two days in Singapore pressing the flesh before dashing back to host the crucial G-8 summit, the result was a moment to savor. Since his reelection in May, Mr. Blair has bounced back from talk of being a lame duck - or worse, President Bush's "poodle" - to stand his ground on the European Union budget and take on an ambitious agenda at the G-8 summit.

"It's not often in this job that you punch the air and do a little jig and embrace the person next to you," Blair said.

"Everyone's just delighted," says a spokeswoman for the London 2012 bid. "We were in Trafalgar Square and when the announcement was made, people just started leaping around and hugging each other."

The contrast with Paris - and the fortunes of Blair's rival, French leader Jacques Chirac - could not have been starker. In the French capital, it rained, and despondent crowds drifted away after the announcement.

"I'm disappointed," said Françoise Roulet, a retired bank worker, as she walked away. "I'm sure London will do the games well, but we had rather been expecting them here."

The news seemed likely to plunge France deeper into a sense of malaise it has been suffering since voting "no" to the EU constitution five weeks ago, and raising doubts about its sense of national identity.

It also sharpened the rivalry between Britain and France, already aggravated by an EU budgetary row and the latest off-the-cuff remarks by Jacques Chirac - who could have used a boost from a successful Paris bid - about the inferiority of British food.

Few in London were worrying about such culinary barbs in the aftermath of success Wednesday. Crowds in Trafalgar Square and the east London neighborhood of Stratford, where the Games will be centered, went berserk with jubilation following the announcement in Singapore by the International Olympic Committee.

And a formidable lineup of sporting heavyweights brought in to bolster the bid grasped for superlatives to describe the dramatic moment when IOC president Jacques Rogge unveiled the winner.

"It's just the most fantastic opportunity to do everything we've always dreamed of in British sport," enthused British track and field legend Sebastian Coe, who headed up the London 2012 bid. A former 1,500-meter gold medalist, Coe said the thrill of bringing home "the biggest prize in sport" eclipsed his own memorable personal triumphs in 1980 and 1984.

Yet just six months ago, the London bid was clearly trailing amid concerns about its transportation and infrastructure; Paris was the front-runner, its stadium in place and its pitch worked out.

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