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Rio Or Chicago; Chicago Or Rio; We See No Olympic Decision Dilemma Here!
We’ve heard all the talk about the decision by the International Olympic Commission (IOC) to choose Rio de Janiero, Brazil over Chicago, Illinois for the 2016 Olympic Games and Para-Olympic games. Here’s our take on the decision. It’s an easy call to make.
We are glad our new president had the boldness, the confidence, to go to Denmark to pitch his and the First Lady’s hometown to the IOC, we were especially moved by Michelle Obama’s impassioned talk including her own personal family experience with sports.
We are proud of the fine presentation given even though many of us at home knew there was very little chance the committee would select the windy city, Chicago, over the exotic location that is Rio de Janiero! Chicago blues, as internationally renowned as it is, is not sufficient to bring the world all at once to Chicago for the Olympics.
The irony of the presentation made by the US Olympic committee is t during its sales pitch many of the speakers talked of the diversity and the distinct ethnic groups represented in the neighborhoods of Chicago; most of the people who spoke of these things were not diverse at all; in fact the thing that made the presentation so overwhelmingly incongruous was it was being made by our first American president of African descent. To us he seemed to be nearly pleading. He seemed to know as he spoke we are not really the shining exemplar our government wants the world to see.
When we review and compare the offering made by the Brazilian Olympic Committee we see demonstrated in the Brazilian presentation and the presenters all the ideals the United States purports to be.
Don’t get our point twisted. Like us Americans the Brazilians are flawed. To us at YouThinkWhat they seem more realistic in how they deal with their deficiencies.
When the first Brazilian speaker used a graphic to detail where else in the world modern Olympic games have been held it became even more clear, Chicago has not a shot in this contest. It was a kind of “When Harry Met Sally” moment. They had us at “Hello”.
Of the twelve times the games have been held in North America, eight times the U.S. has been host to the games. No country on the continent to our south has ever held the games. That in itself is a compelling reason to choose Rio over Chicago.
The fact the chief economics official for the Brazilians spoke of the “robust economy”; and that there would be no new taxation on the people of the South American country that has rebounded from an economic disaster very similar to the one our nation is currently experiencing gave them extra points on our scorecard. Our guys spoke of how our government is going to provide funding for the international event. The Brazilians said they already have the money saved and allocated. No additional burden for their citizens required to put on the show.
Even without the bottom line budgetary considerations, or the facts of where these international games have been hosted in the past, who would, in their right mind choose Chicago, Illinois–The Windy City, over Rio de Janeiro- The Marvelous City?
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