We didn't lose the Olympics, Rio won them

[dsc]

As a former midwesterner, I would have loved to see Chicago get the Olympic games. Chicago is a world class city that would have shown us in a great light. But South America has never, not one single solitary time, in the modern olympic era hosted any Olympic games. No summer games, no winter games, nothing. Rio deserved the games. They had a good, technically strong bid from a region that wasn't just under represented, it was unrepresented. That region deserved the games, they got them. It wasn't some anti Obama conspiracy, it wasn't hatred of Bush's foreign policy. It was a world class bid, from a world class city, from a place that waited over a century to get the games.

[ShortnFiery]

1. That's a perspective that I can support.

:-) :hi:

[LittleBlue]

2. It would look bad if Chicago got them after the President's visit, anyway

Considering the lukewarm response Chicagoans gave the idea, it would look like some bad bias.

Congrats, Rio. :)

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

20. It's probably just as well we didn't get the bid to host the Olympics.

[bigwillq]

3. Indeed.

Good post. :thumbsup:

[TheKentuckian]

4. Certainly you speak to a piece of the puzzle and Chicago could be in the driver's seat for 2020

if inclined on the old sympathy vote which I think may have been the overriding factor. I think the committee was pretty much compelled to be inclusive of S. America, especially after Rio illustrated their exclusion so clearly and publicly.

[harkadog]

12. Mayor Daley has already said the city will not apply for 2020.

With Rio getting them in 2016 they will change hemispheres in 2020 so Chicago would not have a chance and will not waste the effort applying.

[Jackeens]

5. You're a rock of sense, dsc.

Great post - and spot on.

:toast:

[TheDebbieDee]

6. Exactly. The selection of Rio isn't a put-down of the US...........

It's a compliment to the citizens of Rio and Brazil.

I say, "Let's Samba!"

[Lost-in-FL]

7. A nation at war should not host any Olympics. nt

[MellowDem]

8. There's some good reasoning to be had...

over at 538.com as to why Rio might not deserve it. Personally, I don't really care.

[Tansy_Gold]

9. Absolutely!

I pay very little attention to sports of any kind, but as a native Chicagoan, I did give this whole Olympics thing some notice. However, once I saw Rio was on the list, I figured there was no way ANYONE else had a chance.


:yourock: Rio!




Tansy Gold

[dionysus]

10. i certainly don't hold it against them

[thunder rising]

11. If Obama had not gone it would have cheated Brazil out of competing against the "A" team.

I'm sure Obama knew we were not going to get the games. But to show we respect the games enough to deserve consideration in the future, he had to go.

It had to raise the spirits of Rio folks to know that they won in an even competition. And, we are not sore losers. I'm good.

[TheKentuckian]

13. wisdom (nt)

[Withywindle]

14. Agreed, and the heads of state of Spain and Japan went too.

Did they lose "political capital" too?

Probably not in any significant way. It's just something you DO if your country has an Olympic bid in the works.

Better for Obama to go and lose fairly than to NOT go and lose fairly.

[Withywindle]

15. Yay, I got the 5th rec!

I'm honestly really tired of the American exceptionalism at work that suggests we were somehow entitled to the Olympics (AGAIN?) and if we lost them, it MUST be something to do with US or OUR PRESIDENT.


No, it was simply Rio's time, not Chicago's. Brazil is an up-and-coming power; it's the fifth largest country in the world; it most certainly has a proud sports history; it's beautiful and has a pleasant climate; and of course it's also no stranger to throwing ginormous parties full of millions of foreigners on a regular basis. Not only that but its time zones are very similar to that of the US, so hello, prime-time live broadcasting!

Not only was it their time, they just *wanted* it more.

[marshall]

16. Everyone expected it to come down to Rio and Chicago as the final two

It was off putting to have Chicago shut out in the first round of voting, but Rio was a favorite for the win all along.

[LoZoccolo]

17. Your reasoning has as much entitlement in it as the people you argue against.

Your argument is that they are due to have them, not that they won them.

[dsc]

19. what part of technically strong bid was unclear?

[niyad]

18. a most sensible view.

quite frankly, right now I am sick to death of the olympics. the usoc is screwing this community big time, thanks to the spineless cretins who run it to the detriment of the citizenry.

[ensho]

21. kick

nt

[AspenRose]

22. K&R

These people implying we "lost" it, assume it was ours to lose in the first place.

I'm thrilled for Brazil. :-)