President Obama announced that he will fly to Denmark and speak for Chicago during the city’s final presentation to the International Olympic Committee. He will become the first U.S. president to deliver such an address. The First Lady, Michelle Obama, will also address committee members. Oprah Winfrey, along with past Olymic gold medalists including Michael Johnson, Nastia Liukin, Nadia Comaneci and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, will also be part of the delegation in Copenhagen.
The presentation
Committee members will decide among Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. Each city will get 45 minutes to give its final presentation, followed by 15 minutes of IOC members’ questions. The order was determined by a drawing held last year with Chicago slated to go first, followed by Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid.
The vote
The vote by the IOC at the Bella Conference Center in Copenhagen, Denmark Friday, October 2, 2009, will be done secretly and is expected to last about an hour. The IOC has 106 members and countries with an Olympic candidate are ineligible to vote.
IOC members vote by pressing a numbered button (one for each country). If there is no majority vote for a candidate, the city with the least amount of votes will be cut and voting will move on to the second round. The maximum number of rounds is three.
The lowest vote-getter is announced publicly so if Chicago is mentioned early, it’s likely not good news. Since1988, when there were only two countries bidding to host the Olympics-Seoul and Nagoya, Japan–it has taken more than one round to get a majority candidate.
Chicago’s Bid
Chicago was selected as the United States bid city by the United States Olympic Committee on April 14, 2007. Chicago was named one of the four finalists by the IOC on June 4, 2008 and since then, has been lobbying and promoting its city as the best venue to host the 2016 Olympics. Chicago 2016, the organization leading the effort to host the games, expects a cost of $3.8 billion to put on the Olympics.
Plans include building a new temporary stadium for the Olympic Stadium in historic Washington Park. Chicago’s other sports venues such as Soldier Field and United Center would also be used. The Olympic Village will be near Lake Shore Drive and include pedways on Lake Shore Drive.
Results
IOC members have publicly stated that the race is close and they cannot remember a tougher choice.
The results will be announced worldwide at 12:30 p.m. EST.
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