Overview | |
---|---|
Games of the XXXI Olympiad XV Paralympic Games | |
Winner: Rio de Janeiro Runner-up: Madrid Shortlist: Tokyo · Chicago | |
Details | |
City | Chicago, United States |
Chair | Patrick Ryan |
NOC | United States Olympic Committee |
Evaluation | |
IOC score | 7.0 |
Previous Games hosted | |
None • Bid for 1952 and 1956 (It was elected to host the 1904 Summer Olympics, but they were transferred to St. Louis in a 14–2 vote of the IOC).[1] | |
Decision | |
Result | 3rd runner-up (18 votes) |
The Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics was an unsuccessful bid, first recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on September 14, 2007.[2] The IOC shortlisted four of the seven applicant cities—Madrid, Spain; Tokyo, Japan; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Chicago, United States; over Baku, Azerbaijan; Doha, Qatar; and Prague, Czech Republic—on June 4, 2008, during a meeting in Athens, Greece.[3][4][5] This was followed by an intensive bidding process which finished with the election of Rio de Janeiro at the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen, Denmark, on October 2, 2009.[6]
In Chicago's bid, the games would have been held from July 22 to August 7, with the Paralympics held between August 12 and 28.[7] The bid plan emphasized use of Chicago Park District parks to host the games, but other existing facilities such as Soldier Field and McCormick Place would have hosted events. The bid included a plan for North Side, Downtown Loop and South Side celebration locations that would have had high-definition LED screens for unticketed visitors. The bid noted that there was a very high concentration of event locations and training facilities close to each other and that the majority of event sites were clustered together. Thus, the vast majority of athletes would have been close to their competitions.
Chicago earned a general score of 7.0 during the Applicant phase, after a detailed study of the Applicant Files received by the IOC Working Group on January 14, 2008.[8] Between April 4 and 7, 2009, the IOC Evaluation Commission, led by Nawal El Moutawakel, arrived in Chicago to assess the conditions of the city.[9][10] The Commission attended technical presentations, participated in question-and-answer sessions about the Candidature File, and made inspections in all the existing venues across the city.[11]
Though considered a favorite entering the voting process, and despite personal appeals from such high-profile Chicagoans as U.S. President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and Oprah Winfrey, the bid faced considerable organized grassroots opposition, including from the coalitions No Games Chicago[12] and the Unlympics Organizing Committee.[13] Opponents cited the history of cost overruns pervasive to Olympic bids in a time of considerable public debt and the sentiment that funds for the Olympics should instead fund public schools and public clinics. Surveys of Chicagoans in the run-up to the bid saw support for the bid fall below 50%,[14] and Chicago was eliminated on the first ballot in IOC voting on October 2, 2009,[15][16][17] with 18 votes in a three-round exhaustive ballot of the IOC.[18]
On October 2, 2009, Chicago was knocked out in the first round of voting, and the Olympics went to Rio de Janeiro, despite some high-profile backers, such as US President Barack Obama and Chicago-based television hostess Oprah Winfrey, going to Copenhagen to support the bid. Seven years later, the 2016 state-funded Olympics in Rio proved to be a financial disaster, and many argued that privately-funded games in Chicago, where most of the venues were existing or temporary ones, would have fared far better.[19]
The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) selected Chicago over Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco as its candidate city to host the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Paralympics on April 14, 2007.[20] This is the city's third failure, after two failed attempts for the 1952 and the 1956 Summer Olympics (and fourth overall attempt, as Chicago won the 1904 Olympics, but they were moved to St Louis as the World's Fair was there and threatened to host a competing competition if the Olympics were not moved).[21] Olympic Games in North America, including the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, hurt Chicago's bid.[22] It would have been the ninth Olympics hosted in the United States, after the 1904, 1932, 1984 and 1996 Summer Olympics; and the 1932, 1960, 1980 and 2002 Winter Olympics.
After Chicago's failure, the United States will not host the Olympics until the 2028 Summer Games when Los Angeles hosts the Summer Olympics for the third time.[23]
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