Why Chicago lost the Olympics: Theory 531

Why Chicago lost the Olympics: Theory #531

Today I checked the tv at about 11am to see who the IOC would select for the 2016 Olympics, with the remaining cities being Tokyo, Rio, Madrid and Chicago. I had been watching the sports shows on how our President, and others went to Copenhagen to try to influence the IOC to select Chicago.

From many that talked about it, there was a serious shot.

I remember talking to my mom about it, and I really wasn’t that sure that Chicago could get the Olympics. Sure, it would be great…but to me just didn’t seem that possible.

So when the voting started about 11:15, the first round was complete, and Chicago was immediately dropped from the list.

Ouch!

And I feel sorry for all those people in Chicago who were out in the streets, expecting the IOC to select them. My heart does go out to those that for some reason or another, actually believed that the Olympics were coming to Chicago.

But when you consider that they only got 18 votes out of 94 or 95...something was glaringly wrong with the selection. I read one report that said that Tokyo was already out even before the voting began, which obviously was incorrect.

I mean, this was not even close…Chicago got dropped like the proverbial red-headed step child. A humiliating loss to one of our American cities…so why was this loss so bad?

Of course there are numerous reasons, but one report made some sense. The IOC questioned the level of security that the United States has, with travel being so much more difficult in the US after 911. It’s become quite a pain in the butt to travel, with all this Homeland Security going on, and the IOC perhaps wondered if this would become a detriment to the rest of the world.

Remember folks, for Chicago to have been booted out with so few votes, there had to have been some very strong opinions against it. I think that it was fair for Rio to have the Olympics, because it had never been in a South American country before, so I am cool with that.

But here is another thing that rings against Chicago…the last time the Olympics were in the US was where…Atlanta. Wasn’t there a little thing about a Centennial Bombing that happened? Again….security. And it didn’t help that the person they accused of it was completely innocent…talk about innocent until proven guilty…

And we also have to consider the sportsmanship of Chicago fans. Now I say this as a guy that was a Bears fan when Walter Payton led the Bears to the Superbowl, and I am a huge Michael Jordan fan, but true sportsmanship should NEVER exceed human compassion…

I give you the Bartman incident.

This to me is an ugly blow that reminds us that fans can, at times, be stupid. I love watching “Pardon the Interruption”, or “PTI” to be short, on ESPN, and I love both guys that work there, but when Michael Wilbon talks about his hatred of the Bartman, it shows the ugly side of Chicago that really needs to be dropped.

I mean, come on, get a life!

It is a shame that many people of that city persecuted and crucified a fan who was only doing what 99% of all fans would do if the ball was coming their way. And let’s be honest, the Cubs did not lose on THAT play. Yet this man, YEARS after the incident, is still not forgiven by his own town…

How then do you expect to host a world event if you can’t even embrace your own?

I mean, we all had a good laugh the day it happened, or even the week after that, but after awhile if you still hold such bitterness, you no longer embody any sense of sportsmanship. If the IOC took that into account, the hopefully they saw the need for a city to make amends for rejecting their own.

And I know there may well be many other reasons, but I say again, for Chicago to ONLY get 18 votes, there were some very strong opposition against the city. Maybe over time we may learn of them. It would have been cool to see the Olympics in Chicago, but I am content that the IOC picked the right city. Rio, as I hear, is beautiful, and South America deserves an Olympics. Madrid would have been excellent, and Tokyo equally fine. But if I had to pick in order who I would have selected, I think Rio would have been first, then Tokyo, Madrid and last, Chicago.

That does not mean I hate Chicago, it just means I think those other cities would have served the Olympics in 2016 better. Maybe by 2020 Chicago can take better steps to make itself more attractive to the IOC. We shall see.