IOC to Vote on 2008 Olympics' City

July 13 -- It's not whether you win or lose, it's where you play the Games.

That's the motto today in Moscow, where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will vote on where the 2008 Summer Games will be held. The three top candidates to host the 2008 Games include Toronto, Paris and Beijing.

While Toronto boasts a city and country relatively free of political strife, and Paris offers the best food and wine (as well as an opportunity to see the Eiffel Tower while playing beach volleyball), Beijing is considered the odds-on favorite to win the bid. London oddsmakers at William Hill had Beijing as the 1/5 odds on favorite to win the Games, ahead of Toronto at 3/1, Paris at 7/1, Osaka at 33/1 and Istanbul at 66/1.

Beijing is also the most controversial pick for the games, mainly because of China's record on human rights, including their reportedly poor treatment of some religious groups, intellectuals, and journalists. The country also reportedly put 1,800 people to death last year — more than the rest of the world's nation's combined. Protests by Tibetan and human rights groups have not abated today, and several arrests have been reported.

See the sidebar on protests in Moscow.

But the Chinese believe that hosting the Olympics would not only be a great honor, but the chance to host the Olympics would be a gesture that would be pro-human rights.

"The human rights conditions in China have been improving in the past 15 years," said Wang Wei, secretary general of the Beijing Bid Committee in Moscow.. "Especially since the 1990s with the "Opening Up" Policy of China and with the economic development in China, all aspects of social access have been enhanced, including human rights conditions."

In anticipation of hosting the games, the country has launched a public awareness campaign to drum up support. And the country plans to spend up to $20 billion towards sports arenas, renovating hotels, and cleaning up the air and environment.

"Our pursuit for the Olympic ideals has never succeeded, and we kept out promise and we worked very hard and we honor our promise," Wei said. "We built a new airport, new highways, and we tried to enhance people's awareness of the environment and their awareness of about everything that is related to the Olympic Games."