June 5, 2008

Chicago Is One Step Closer to the Olympics

chicago 2016 olympics

To the incredible joy of many Windy City residents and athletes, Chicago is now one of the four finalists bidding for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. On Wednesday in Athens, the International Olympic Committee announced their picks of 'capable' cities: Chicago, Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio de Janeiro. (Doha in Qatar, Baku in Azerbaijan, and Prague of the Czech Republic were eliminated from the list.) The IOC will make its final decision on a host city on October 2, 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Local organizers are planning a pep rally at Daley Plaza at 11:30 a.m. on Friday to thank the city for all their support.

Photo credit: Chicago2016.org

http://www.chicago2016.org/

6 comments

6 comments to Chicago Is One Step Closer to the Olympics

  1. J-Michael
    June 5th, 2008 at 5:39 pm

    This is great! It’s about time it returned to Chicago…it’s a perfect city for it.

  2. Katherine
    June 5th, 2008 at 10:36 pm

    I second that. I’d fly to Chicago for this.

  3. Kath
    June 6th, 2008 at 1:11 am

    Well, I live in Chicago and more people here don’t want it than do. Our mass transit is falling apart, kids are getting shot left and right, and they just raised the sales tax in Cook County so that our sales tax total now comes to 10.25% - higher than New York. Our mayor is saying that no public money will be used for financing this, but everybody knows that’s a lie - we’ll be saddled with even more taxes to pay for all this. And for what? Three weeks of traffic snarls, heightened security on the trains & buses that are already hard to travel on, and the detrius of it all left strewn up and down our once-pretty lakefront once the world has moved on. NO THANK YOU.

  4. Shane
    June 6th, 2008 at 2:25 am

    Either Tokyo or Chicago would work for me! They are crazy nuts over this in Tokyo right now…

    I remember when Expo was held in Vancouver, my hometown, and speaking from experience it’s a bit crazy for residents when something that big comes to your town. But it’s a lot of fun too!

  5. Matt B
    June 6th, 2008 at 6:04 am

    Everyone here in Chicago is pretty darn excited too. I feel the Windy City is due. Chicago has never hosted the Olympics before, but we have had the Gay Games, the AIBA World Boxing Championships, and the FIFA World Cup, so the city has already proven it is capable of hosting such an international event. I have always been fascinated with the Olympic Games, and I could not begin to describe how excited I would be if they were hosted here.

  6. Olympics Round-up
    June 11th, 2008 at 6:36 am

    [...] Matt at “The Chicago Traveler” talks about Chicago getting closer to hosting the 2016 games. [...]

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