SINGAPORE, July 2 - Daniel L. Doctoroff surveyed the harried work proceeding around him, the fourth floor of the Raffles Convention Center being transformed into the center of the International Olympic Committee universe, and he seized upon the world surreal.
Still a bit dazed from the 18-plus-hour flight that had deposited him here, Doctoroff, the founder of New York's Olympic bid, could hardly believe he was at the place where the host city for the 2012 Summer Games will be decided. On Wednesday, when the I.O.C. chooses from among New York, Paris, London, Madrid and Moscow, the fate of Doctoroff's 11-year-old dream will sit in the hands of 116 people Doctoroff has tirelessly wooed for the past few years. He calculated that he had flown 175,000 miles in the past six months alone.
After the last of those miles, he walked off a plane in Singapore at 5 a.m. Friday, flashing an easy smile and a cheerful demeanor for the squad of local television cameras awaiting him. Sunrise was still several hours away. And the sales job was far from over.
"Everyone's always called me the eternal optimist, but I really believe we have a great chance at what would be an incredible upset," Doctoroff said. "I can see how it will happen. I've always been able to see it. I could be totally wrong, but I can see it."
Immediately, Doctoroff began to work restoring New York's image in this race. His confidence may have survived the defeat of the West Side stadium project and New York's moribund image internationally, not to mention the world's longest direct flight, from Newark to Singapore, but he is asked everywhere he turns whether New York truly has a chance, whether the longtime favorite Paris can possibly be beaten.
He concedes nothing.
"What I always visualized was going into the final vote with a great chance to win, and I believe that is where we are," Doctoroff said. "I'm not one to believe in odds set by British bettors. Instead I believe in what New York offers for athletes, for sport, for the Olympic movement. The true test will come on Wednesday."
Until then, the I.O.C. will begin to get down to work. Members began arriving Saturday, and the executive board will begin meeting Sunday. On Monday, the board is expected to formally approve New York's request to alter its bid with an Olympic stadium in Queens replacing the one on the West Side of Manhattan. The full I.O.C. session begins with an opening ceremony on Tuesday night, and the cities' presentations and the vote will consume Wednesday.
Before that, Doctoroff and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and a huge New York delegation of Olympians and dignitaries will continue to lobby I.O.C. members at every turn: in meetings, chance encounters in hallways or restaurants.
Bloomberg is scheduled to arrive Sunday. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will join the fray Tuesday. The Olympians supporting New York have begun to trickle in and lend some star power, with Muhammad Ali topping off that procession in the next few days.
Their job is to bolster the idea of New York as a plausible choice.
"We're not going to tell them anything new," Doctoroff said. "I think at this point, we want to remind them that we'd make a great partner, and if there's an issue, we'll figure out how to get it done."
That is the theme coming out of New York's stadium drama, with bid members spinning it as a can-do response to a difficult problem. What is unknown is how I.O.C. members view that development, but Doctoroff said that he had talked to about 50 members since the new stadium plan was unveiled and that he believed the backlash would be minimal.
He is left to hope that his efforts - and his air mileage - will not go to waste.
NYC2012 staffers have helped deluge members with materials. Most recently, they sent View-Masters with 3D pictures of the before and after of each proposed Olympic site. They sent boxes of handwritten letters from New Yorkers addressed to each I.O.C. member, complete with pictures and arguments for their city.
This is on top of Doctoroff's travels. He said he has had meaningful discussions with 113 of the members, varying from 15-minute conversations with some to repeated visits and friendships developed with others.
"Very early on, and time will tell if the strategy is correct, the strategy was to treat every single one of the I.O.C. members like individuals, to solicit their input, find out what's important to them in selecting a city," he said. "I believe they've been very honest, very candid with us describing what is important to them."
The bid team has always tailored its presentations to the group being addressed. In a gathering of international sports federations in Berlin, Doctoroff unveiled a sports marketing plan for them. At a meeting of African Olympic committees, he took the African-born basketball star Dikembe Mutombo to talk about the virtues of New York.
Of course, all of the other bid cities were at each of those meetings as well. And they come to Singapore with the same professions of optimism as Doctoroff.
"The true test comes on Wednesday," he said.
That presentation cannot be tailored. The entire I.O.C. will sit in judgment, ready to decide if the last 11 years of Doctoroff's pursuit will take the Olympics to New York, or if he will be left to decide whether to try again in another four years.
Surreal, indeed.