Chicago Pleads Its Case to Host Olympic Games in 2016

NewYorkTimes
COPENHAGEN — Delivering a final presentation that was heavy on emotion and light on technical issues Friday morning, officials from Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics have only one thing left to do: wait.

A 10-person team, led by President Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama, were the first of four bid delegations — including Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Chicago and Tokyo — to address the International Olympic Committee, which will vote on a host city for the Summer Games this evening in Denmark, or about lunchtime in Chicago.

“To host athletes and visitors from every corner of the globe is a high honor and a great responsibility,” said Mr. Obama, whose Chicago home is just a short walk from the prospective Olympic Stadium. “And America is ready and eager to assume that sacred trust.”

“So I’ve come here today to urge you to choose Chicago for the same reasons I chose Chicago nearly twenty-five years ago — the reasons I fell in love with the city I still call home,” he said.

Mr. Obama is the first American president to attend the I.O.C. vote to promote a bid.

As the last speaker for the United States, Mr. Obama emphasized Chicago’s diversity, looking out into the crowd of I.O.C. members and saying, “This could be a meeting in Chicago. Because we look like the world.”

Chicago, which spent nearly $50 million preparing its bid, is trying to bring the Summer Games to the United States for the first time since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The last time a United States city hosted any Olympics was in 2002, when Salt Lake City had the Winter Games.

Madrid is bidding on it fourth consecutive Summer Games after losing out to London for the 2012 Games. They were voted out of the competition in the third round after gathering the most votes in the previous round. This will be the fourth consecutive time Spain has submitted a bid for the Summer Games.

Tokyo is hoping to win the bid and host the first Summer Games there since the 1964 Summer Games. Rio de Janeiro is pushing to host the Games in South America for the first time.

“The final word we want to take to the I.O.C. members is that we want to talk about the future of Brazil and Rio,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told reporters here this week. “Brazil today is experiencing a much more favorable situation than many developed countries. Brazil is experiencing a magical moment in terms of growth.”

“The only thing I’m upset about is that they arranged me to follow Michelle. That’s always bad,” he said afterward, smiling as he waved to the crowd.

The United States Olympic Committee chairman, Larry Probst, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and two athletes — Olympic champion decathlete Bryan Clay and former Paralympian Linda Mastandrea — also spoke during the 45-minute presentation that was designed not to be too flashy.

““Our intent was to demonstrate to them we will be good partners and that we are people they could trust,” Doug Arnot, director of sports and operations for Chicago 2016.

The delegation’s presentation started with a video montage of the Chicago — including bikini-wearing volleyball players on Lake Michigan beaches. The song, “Sweet Home Chicago” played in the background.

“It made me miss home,” Mr. Obama said of the videos, as he left the convention center outside of downtown. “I think Chicago couldn’t have made a better presentation. Obviously, now it’s up to the I.O.C. members.”

By dinner time in Copenhagen, and 12:30 in New York, , the world will know whether Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro or Tokyo will host the 2016 Games. Olympic insiders have said Rio and Chicago are the front runners. Tokyo’s presentation went next, followed by Rio de Janeiro and then Madrid. At 10 a.m., Eastern time, the I.O.C. will meet to vote. The eligible voters will cast their votes electronically – and secretly — by pressing a button. The members from a country with a city in the vote must sit out until that country is eliminated. (The United States has two I.O.C. members.)

If no city receives a majority of the votes in the first round, the city with the lowest number of votes is dropped from the ballot. If there is a tie in the final round, I.O.C. President Jacques Rogge steps in to vote or asks the I.O.C. executive board to break the deadlock. The United States does not have a member on that board.

The last time around, in the competition to become host city for the 2012 Games, London beat Paris by the slim margin of 54-50. New York City’s bid was eliminated in the second round of voting.

At 12:30 p.m., Eastern time — 6:30 p.m. here — a winner will be announced and one city will begin its celebration. Three other teams will leave here in disappointment.

The Brazilian bid — thought to be a frontrunner with Chicago — has been the target of criticism over the last few days, causing tension among the delegations as the vote grew near.

Mayor Daley raised the ire of the Rio de Janeiro bid when he said that hosting the 2014 World Cup was not the same as hosting the Games. Bid leader Patrick G. Ryan said Mr. Daley’s remarks were misinterpreted.

The Spanish Olympic Committee vice president, José María Odriozola, who is not an official member of the Madrid bid team, called Rio de Janeiro’s bid “the worst bid” and said it had security issues.

Because I.O.C rules forbid bid teams from criticizing one another, Brazil lodged a formal complaint with the he I.O.C. ethics commission against Mr. Odriozola.

After the Salt Lake City bribery scandal, I.O.C. members were barred from meeting with bid officials of cities in the running to host the Games. So over the past several years, those bid cities have reached out to I.O.C. members as much as they could — especially in the final few days before the vote.

Every bid team brought distinguished leaders, including King Juan Carlos for Spain and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama for Japan.

Dozens of Olympians have flooded the city to lobby for their city’s cause, including the Brazilian soccer legend Pelé.

“In these last few days, it’s all about momentum,” one I.O.C. member, Dick Pound, of Canada, said. “Every city knows that.”

With Mrs. Obama and Oprah Winfrey headlining the delegation, the Chicago team met has been reminding I.O.C. members of their Olympic plan, which would hold the Games along the shoreline of Lake Michigan and in century-old city parks, with Chicago’s dramatic skyline as the backdrop. The Chicago City Council also voted 49-0 to cover any financial shortfalls, which is a first for a U.S. bid.

“Some of what the I.O.C. considers has nothing to do with the strength of the bids themselves,” said Frank Lavin, the former U.S. ambassador to Singapore, who worked on New York City’s failed bid to host the 2012 Games.

“A lot of it is political and that encompasses different levels: international politics, personalities, internal I.O.C. politics,” he said. “Inside the I.O.C., they’re saying, ‘Look can we snub the U.S. because they haven’t had the Games since Atlanta? Can we risk losing some of the television audience if we go somewhere else?’ The process is complicated.”

But every city has its potential downsides. Rio de Janeiro’s high crime rate could damage its chances. The country has secured rights to host the 2014 World Cup, which may mean advertisers might not have enough money to spread between the two events.

Madrid’s geography works against it. Awarding the Games to Madrid would mean that back-to-back Summer Games would be held in Europe, and the I.O.C. often seeks to hold the Games in different parts of the world.

Tokyo’s bid has the same problem, with the 2008 Beijing Games still fresh in people’s minds.