Chicago--No We Can't

Despite the star-heavy US presentation in Copenhagen, despite the duet of President Obama and Oprah ("Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town!  Chicago, Chicago, we'll show you around") the IOC didn't love it.  

Instead, the 2016 Summer Olympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro, August 5-21, and Olympians will arrive at the Antonio Carlo Jobim International Airport in the dead of winter.  Average August temperature:  15 degrees celsius, 70 degrees fahrenheit.

So, with Chicago out, we will not watch the Olympic torch being carried into Capone Stadium 

by gentlemen in black fedoras.  We will not witness the St. Valentine's Day Marathon.  We will not see the eagerly anticipated Broad Jump.

It could have been so different, if only the selection process had rested on the presenters shooting hoops, one on one.  Surely Magic Obama would have taken Yukio Hatoyama, King Juan Carlos, and Brazil's Lula de Silva.   

But it was not to be.  And friends, this is the kind of thing that makes Chicago IL.