PARIS – For Philippe Baudillon, the former French diplomat who heads up Paris’s effort to outmaneuver New York and win the 2012 Olympic Games, it’s difficult to escape America’s shadow.

A street named after President Wilson runs by the front of his office, where a traffic island holds a statue of George Washington, sword raised, astride a horse. The public-relations firm keeping track of the Paris bid’s image, Weber Shandwick, is part of the Interpublic Group, which has its world headquarters at New York. The consulting firm that completed the economic impact study on the Paris games is the Boston Consulting Group, with headquarters at the Massachusetts city.

Nevertheless, if some press accounts and London odds makers are to be believed, it is Mr. Baudillon and the Paris bid that have the best chance of prevailing in July, when the International Olympic Committee will choose a host for the 2012 summer games.

That would deny America the 2012 games and would hand a setback to Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki, who have pressed New York’s bid as a catalyst for redevelopment of Manhattan’s West Side and of desolate waterfront tracts throughout the city.

Olympics rules discourage officials of bidding cities from speaking publicly about bids other than their own. Even so, a visit with Mr. Baudillon and a lunch with one of his close aides provide a comparative perspective that may be useful to New Yorkers curious about the Big Apple’s chances of playing host to the world’s greatest athletes.

One difference becomes obvious to anyone taking a train into Paris from the Charles de Gaulle Airport: a stadium so big it looks as if a giant flying saucer has parked and landed in a Paris suburb. Opened in 1998, the Stade de France seats 80,000 spectators for soccer, 75,000 for track and field. New York’s stadium, in contrast, exists as architectural renderings and as a matter of political debate, but not in reality.

“We are really, really happy to have the stadium,” Mr. Baudillon said in an interview this week with The New York Sun. “It’s here. We have plenty of time. … We will take advantage of the fact that it is already existing.”

Mr. Baudillon called the stadium “one of the strongest assets” of the Paris bid. Publicly owned but run by a private concessionaire, the stadium has been used for the 1998 World Cup of soccer, a Paul McCartney concert, and an auto race.

Another marked difference between the New York and Paris bids is that while this is New York City’s first serious Olympic bid in recent memory, it is Paris’s third. Mr. Baudillon began his career 20 years ago, working on an unsuccessful bid for the 1992 games. A more recent bid, for the 2008 games, also failed.

“We are pushed by the two former bids in terms of the mobilization of the population and the key decision-makers,” Mr. Baudillon said.

That mobilization is significantly more visible than the effort in New York. The Eiffel Tower, store windows, and street lamps are festooned with the Paris 2012 logo, two months before a delegation of the International Olympic Committee visits.

Not that anyone is counting New York out of the 2012 competition. In terms of the international politics, New York can reap the benefits of America’s status as a global superpower, while, as part of a “blue” state, it can dodge international resentment of President Bush. New York’s large immigrant populations are also considered a plus.

The executive director of New York’s Olympic bid committee, Jay Kriegel, told the Sun that the “unequaled” diversity of New York’s population meant that athletes from nearly every country would essentially be competing before a hometown crowd.

He called New York’s case for the games “very strong” and said the bid committee will in the next week announce a “bold and creative and disciplined” campaign to increase its visibility in the city.

London’s bid is also considered a strong contender. Of the other five finalists for the 2012 games, Moscow and Madrid are considered much longer shots.

If New York does lose out to Paris for the 2012 games, it can always try again for 2016, much as Paris has persisted. A Paris Olympics isn’t necessarily a bad thing for America, either. The last time the games were held here, in 1924, American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller won five gold medals and some of the fame that helped him later in Hollywood as the movies’ “Tarzan.”

Mr. Baudillon, having seen Paris already lose twice in the contest to be host of the Olympics, said that if the city loses out this time around, it will be the end to his own involvement.

“This project is very important for France,” he told the Sun. He is a former regional champion in the 110-meter hurdles. He knows New York from a diplomatic posting at the United Nations in 1984.

A visiting New Yorker senses no hostility, just an athlete’s competitiveness, when Mr. Baudillon wraps up the interview by saying “I am dedicated to only one thing: Paris wins in July. We must win.”