Obama's "personal charm" failed to win Chicago the 2016 Olympics
In a stunning development, Chicago was the first city eliminated on Friday in IOC voting to be host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics. [...]Obama didn't even stick around to face the humiliation:
His wife tugged at IOC members’ heart strings by discussing her late father, who had multiple sclerosis. She recounted sitting on his lap, watching Olympians such as Carl Lewis and Nadia Comaneci compete, and how her father “taught me how to throw a ball and a mean right hook.”
“My dad would have been so proud to witness these games in Chicago,” she said.
Throngs watching the voting in downtown Chicago’s Daley Plaza gasped in disappointment as the announcement was made.One of the main factors that scuttled Chicago's chances of being elected was the negative reputation they're getting, including school violence:
United States Olympic Committee leaders appeared stunned by the news and had no comment as they left the voting hall. Mr. Obama was flying back to Washington at the time of the vote.
Luciano Reyes speculated that Chicago was undone by a negative reputation internationally.I won't be surprised if former governor Blagojevich's record also served to scuttle their chances. The next Olympic host will be Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro.
“The violence in the schools became an international issue, and all the corruption, the rest of the world just sees us as Crook Town,” said Reyes, 59, currently unemployed, who bought his first TV two decades ago specifically to watch the Olympics.
Update: Tokyo's governor blames the failure of Japan to win the hosting on politics. He may be more right than we think.
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Labels: Asia, Europe, Japan, Latin America, political corruption, Scandanavia, United States