It was not my choice. For sentimental reasons, I had hoped that Chicago would win the vote among the four finalists--Rio, Madrid, Tokyo, and Chicago. I grew up in Ohio and my first plane ride was to visit my aunt in the Windy City. She lived in an apartment and worked at Michael Reese Hospital. That area was my "second home" in Chicago and would have been the site of the Olympic Village had Chicago's bid been successful. My son also lives in Chicago. I have friends who worked for the bid.
In retrospect, I believe Chicago's bid failed because it was marketed and sold on money. The US, the most powerful nation in the world, wanted to welcome those less economically fortunate to its core for a lucrative opportunity to enrich the city, the US, and the IOC. The President and First Lady lobbied in person, along with Oprah, for Chicago. Their message was that we are a diverse nation that wanted to welcome the world to visit us for the 2016 Games. We're rich. We're powerful. We'll be good for the IOC.
Rio countered with a message that has won the day in the last three Games bid contests, not what we are, but what we can do for you. It's widely believed that London's message of a Games that would leave a lasting legacy of promoting sport among all carried the day for the 2012 bid. The opening up of the world to China for 2008 triumphed. Rio combined those messages in selling their bid. Come to South America, Pele said. Be international. Be Olympian.
As a representative from the sports marketing firm IMG, David Abrutyn, said the Games in South America can be good for business as well. Just like Beijing, it is an opportunity for companies to have high profile access to an emerging market economy. But that was not the leading pitch by the boys from Brazil. Their president did not fly in at the last minute or send letters, he had traveled to Africa and elsewhere long before to lobby in person for votes.
As in most political processes, it's personal. Most of the countries voting and part of the "Olympic family" are more like Brazil than the US. They are not super powers. They don't have lucrative TV deals from corporate operations that pitch the financial rewards of their relationships. They don't have the albatross of what is viewed as the "Ugly American" syndrome of revenue sharing on those television contracts. If anything, Chicago's, and New York's before that in the last bid process, is another wake up call that, despite inroads made by the Obama administration, the US still has a lot of work to do to repair damaged relations with the rest of the world.
And, as Team USA Minnesota's Chris Lundstrom discovered when he competed in the Pan Am Games in Rio, the Brazilians can deliver on putting on an international sporting event. There will be a lot of analysis and aftershocks reverberating from today's vote. Those very different "games" will continue. But Rio is the right choice for the right reasons and has the potential of enhancing the Olympic "brand." With all it's other baggage, that brand survives because the underpinning of the Olympics is that it was created as an opportunity for the youth of the world to come together.
In 2016 the Olympic "party"/gathering will be in Rio. And, as the revelers at every year's Carnival can tell you, Rio knows how to party.
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