Globe... Chicago is official candidate of the US 2016 bid. Also mention of a Pan Am Games bid for Canada.
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Chicago throws its hat into the Rings
JAMES CHRISTIE
Globe and Mail Update
September 4, 2007 at 4:17 PM EDT
Chicago has officially toddled into the race for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, and the spinoffs of its success or failure will involve Canada.
The United States Olympic Committee chairman Peter Ueberroth and chief executive officer Jim Scherr submitted Chicago's candidacy for 2016 on Tuesday to the International Olympic Committee to be host of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, along with a letter from Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley.
Chicago's candidacy was evaluated by USOC directors as having more chance of success than those of Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
"When we looked at Chicago, we saw an ideal partner… a beautiful waterfront city with passionate sports fans and a can-do mayor who leads a city that knows how to get things done," said Ueberroth in a statement from the USOC.
Chicago's possible selection for 2016, coupled with the candidacies of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the 2014 World Cup of soccer and the 2016 Olympics will play into whether Toronto bids for any Games in the foreseeable future. If Rio or Chicago land the 2016 Olympics, it's apt to put Toronto out of the running for a long time, as a city in the Americas. The 2016 host would be declared by the IOC in Oct. 2009 in Copenhagen.
In the meantime, there is a push on by former IOC member Paul Henderson for the Canadian Olympic Committee to launch a Pan Am Games bid for 2015. Henderson says that becoming a Games host is the only reliable way for Canadian athletes to get the facilities and investment in sport they need.
"COC major funding over the last 20 years has not been accomplished by creative marketing schemes, but by the simple process of hosting first Calgary 88 and now Vancouver 2010," Henderson said in an e-mail. He also pointed out that Canada's most significant international achievements over the past weekend of world championships — the rowing men's eights, 800-metre runner Gary Reed and Olympic qualifying triathlete Simon Whitfield — came from Victoria-based athletes. Victoria was host of the 1994 Commonwealth Games.
"In total, these [Calgary and Vancouver Olympic programs] have funded the COC activities to the sum of over $150-million. If the COC would face reality they would be actively promoting a 2015 Pan Am bid and preparing for a summer bid 20 years from now, plus any other event that gets facilities and youth motivated," said Henderson, who led Toronto's bid for the 1996 Games and consulted for the 2008 bid team.
Scherr indicated Chicago's selection as the U.S. candidate city for 2016 was based on a number of factors:
* "Chicago developed a vision and plan for the Games in the heart of the city that, we believe, would deliver an extraordinary experience for the Olympians and Paralympians of 2016."
* "The public/private partnership between the City of Chicago, under the leadership of mayor Richard M. Daley, and the business community, under the leadership of Chicago 2016 chairman Patrick Ryan, demonstrated an ability to marshal the resources of the city and mobilize public support for the bid at levels beyond those of any American bid city in the past."
* "The celebration center at the heart of the Games, set along the city's spectacular park-lined lakefront, offers the Olympic Movement an ideal gathering place to showcase the unity of humanity in remarkable ways."
* "As the capital of America's heartland — with a central geographic location in the middle of the country — Chicago is in a strong position to engage our nation with a new vision of the transforming power of the Olympic Movement and build a new level of participation in and visibility for Olympic sport across our country."
"As a Chicagoan and an Olympian, I am very excited about the prospect of Chicago hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016," said Mike Conley, executive director of World Sport Chicago and two-time Olympic medalist in the triple jump (1984: silver, 1992: gold, 1996: fourth).
National Olympic Committees have until Sept. 13 to submit 2016 applications. The international bid process will last two years.