Olympics 2016 : Thrill of victory for Rio; agony of defeat for Chicago, and for Obama! -The iPINIONS Journal

Rio!!!

You’d be hard-pressed, however, to find a pundit who did not insist that, with the popular triumvirate of President Obama, his wife Michelle and Oprah Winfrey doing the closing pitch, the IOC was bound to award the 2016 Olympic Summer Games to Chicago.

In fact, most commentators claimed that Obama would not be competing with other heads of state for this award unless the IOC guaranteed he’d win. And they seemed blithely oblivious to the irony and hypocrisy inherent in this claim.

I, of course, was among the few exceptions. Specifically, here’s how I pooh-poohed Chicago’s presumed invincibility:

The 100-plus members of the IOC will vote in a secret ballot for the winner on Friday. And Obama had better hope that his delegation has done enough “persuading” to ensure that he is not putting his presidential gravitas (and Oprah’s celebrity) on the line in vain….

After all, losing this bid will only imbue the vacuous contempt so many have for him with (some) just cause….

That said, I don’t mind disclosing that I’m rooting for Brazil…. Good luck Lula.

[Pres. Obama to lobby IOC in Copenhagen…? TIJ, September 30, 2009]

Nevertheless, even I was shocked when Chicago became the first of the four contenders to be eliminated in the first round of voting.

Not surprisingly, the pundits who predicted that Chicago was a lock are now joining his visceral critics in predicting that this humiliating defeat will have a devastating impact upon Obama’s presidency. I disagree.

To be sure, there will be those waxing crocodile laments about the loss of American influence in the world.

But, ironically, this loss is a poignant affirmation of Obama’s mandate to cast the United States as a team player, instead of perpetuating its image as a bully, in the international community. Moreover, breakthrough on Iran, passage of health care reform or any number of positive political developments will render his olympian failure here completely insignificant.

All the same, so much for Obama’s worldwide, rock-star popularity … eh?

More to the point, though, since I was rooting for Brazil, my shock turned immediately to vindication because I knew that Chicago’s loss meant that Rio’s win was inevitable.

Not least because, with only Brazil and Spain left in contention in the final round, the IOC’s rotation principle effectively dictated that a non-European country would host in 2016 – since London is hosting the Games in 2012.

And so it was:

Tonight I have the honor to announce that the Games of the XXXI Olympiad are awarded to the city of …. Rio de Janeiro.

(IOC president Jacques Rogge just moments ago)

Brazil will now become the first country in South America to host an Olympic Games.