Rio de Janeiro Wins 2016 Olympic Games

Friday, October 02, 2009
This story in Fox NewsApparently the world now knows that the 2016 Olympics are going to be held in Rio de Janeiro as chosen by the International Olympic Committee. This will be the first time that South America has hosted any Olympics. Highly publicized was the issue of our very own President going to put in his bid for the city of Chicago which happens to be his old stomping grounds, to be the receiver of the committee’s choice. However Chicago was not even given a slight glance when it came to narrowing down the choice for host site. In fact Chicago was the first site to be eliminated from the competition.


I’m glad that Chicago was not chosen which says nothing against the Olympics or America, but gives the participants a chance to compete in a part of the world not seen by the viewing audiences of the world in any Olympic Games.


In the article it stated “Rio spoke to IOC members' consciences: the city argued that it was simply unfair that South America has never hosted the games, while Europe, Asia and North America have done so repeatedly.” and "It is a time to address this imbalance," Brazil's charismatic president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told the IOC's members before they voted. "It is time to light the Olympic cauldron in a tropical country." I think the writer of this article by the associated press also seems just as delighted in Rio being picked because it added “Football great Pele had tears in his eyes.” Now we know who has more pull than our President as the article stated “Former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch who ran the IOC for 21 years made an unusual appeal for the Spanish capital, reminding the IOC's members as he asked for their vote that, at age 89, "I am very near the end of my time." This writer must have not like our Presidents handling of the situation because it included statements against him by others saying his brief stop and alleged lack of respect to the IOC was cause for Chicago not to be chosen. Others though thought it was unfair as the article reported "To have the president of the United States and his wife personally appear, then this should happen in the first round is awful and totally undeserving," Boo Hoo. We have enough to worry about here in America besides hosting the Olympics.

Personally I think the Olympics are ok but last time they seem to have an unsettling effect on the whole world. Last time they were held in a place where the smog was so bad from the factories that they had to shut down manufactures of certain medical supplies for the duration of the games. That resulted in the shortage of available supplies during that time and the medical facilities in the U.S were forced to scramble to find other suppliers. This directly affected my place of employment so I am not terribly fond of the whoha that comes with the Olympics in general