The International Olympic Committee voted today on what city would host the 2016 Summer Olympics and they eliminated Chicago from contention very quickly. In fact, the Windy City was eliminated in the very first round of voting. The IOC went on to award Rio de Janeiro with the privilege of hosting the 2016 Summer Games.
Though I’ve never been to Rio de Janeiro, I have been to Chicago. It’s because of this fact that I never really quite understood why Chicago was ever in the running to be a host city.
Who wants to go to Chicago?
It’s not a fun place to go. The traffic is terrible. Crime is high. The people there never seemed very interested in making strangers feel all that welcome. Back when I did a lot of traveling, Chicago ranked right up there with Detroit when it came to places I did not want to visit. Perhaps the voting members of the IOC agree with me.
I guess now President Obama can concentrate on his job and stop fooling around with which city will host the Olympics in 2016.
Lee B.
/ October 3, 2009The Obamas and Oprah… made for quite a circus. I won’t say I delight in seeing the Olympics go abroad, but I do enjoy finding parts of the world that Oprah does not yet own.
Bentcorner
/ October 3, 2009@Lee B.: I actually prefer it when the Olympics are overseas. It adds something to the presentation when it’s in a foreign land. The only downside is when it’s being held in a country that is in a totally different timezone. You either have to get up at 3am to watch events, or watch them on tape delay and run the risk of finding out the outcome as soon as it happens. Having the games in Rio doesn’t present that problem. They are in the same timezone as us.