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Smith’s famous fist salute caused a great deal of controversy. Originally Black athletes had planned to boycott the Olympics until a change of plan. Tommie Smith and fellow runner, John Carlos, used their shining moment to show pride and to attack racism. The minimum bid is $200,000

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Fifty-year-old, seven-time Olympic sprinter Merlene Ottey surprised many last week when she appeared at the European championships.

Her appearance in Barcelona made her the oldest person to compete in the championships.

Read more at The Guardian

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JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Fresh from its successful hosting of Africa’s first World Cup, South Africa said Tuesday it will bid to bring the Olympics to Africa for the first time in 2020.

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee said it would “formally oversee a bid for the 2020 Games” and encouraged potential host cities to “state their intention of being involved in the process.”

Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg are considered possible bid cities.

South Africa’s Olympic body said the announcement, just two days after the World Cup final in Johannesburg, “comes in the wake of resounding international acclaim for the manner in which South Africa staged the 2010 Fifa World Cup.”

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SASCOC said the successful World Cup and the endorsement of a possible Olympic bid by South Africa president Jacob Zuma led to the decision to proceed with the 2020 effort.

“We have decided that the way forward would be to engage government and key stakeholders,” SASCOC chief executive Tubby Reddy said, “but our intention is to provide a world-class city capable of hosting Africa’s first Olympic Games in 2020.”

It will be South Africa’s second Olympic bid. Cape Town finished third in the race for the 2004 Games, behind winner Athens and Rome.

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The IOC’s decision on the host for the 2020 Olympics will be made in 2013, but preliminary bids must be submitted next year. So far Rome is the only city to formally announce it will bid for 2020.

Durban, which is South Africa’s third largest city, will have a chance to impress Olympic officials when it hosts the 123rd IOC session in July 2011— where the host for the 2018 Winter Olympics will be announced.

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SASCOC had said Monday it would consider bidding for either the 2020 or 2024 Olympics, but wanted to talk to South Africa’s government.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, who met with Zuma in South Africa over the weekend, has said the IOC would welcome a bid from South Africa.

Rogge attended the World Cup final Sunday at Soccer City and praised the country’s organization of the world’s biggest soccer tournament.

SASCOC said in Tuesday’s statement that the World Cup “has been hailed far and wide as an overwhelming advertisement for the country and the continent.”

TULSA, Okla. (AP)—Marion Jones hasn’t lost much of her swagger.

The disgraced sprinter once called the world’s fastest woman was introduced Wednesday as the newest member of the WNBA’s Tulsa Shock and she offered no apologies for her steroids use or her time in federal prison. She was poised and ready for questions about her troubled past.

“The word redemption is not in my vocabulary,” Jones said at a news conference, flanked by team president Steve Swetoha and coach Nolan Richardson. “I’m a competitor, I want to play against the best in the world, and I know that I will be doing that.”

Her bid for a new career comes a decade after she starred at the Sydney Olympics, winning gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 1,600-meter relay, and bronze in the long jump and 400-meter relay. She was stripped of all five medals after admitting in 2007 that she was using performance-enhancing drugs—a designer steroid called the “clear”—at the time of the games.

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Athletes Behaving Badly

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RELATED: VIDEO: Marion Jones On Oprah

Jones also spent about six months in a Texas prison for lying to federal prosecutors about doping and her role in a check-fraud scam.

The 34-year-old Jones joined the team just four days after working out for Richardson, who is also the team’s general manager. She was signed to at least a one-year contract but terms were not disclosed.

Jones was the starting point guard on North Carolina’s national championship team in 1994 and she was drafted by Phoenix in 2003 but never played in the WNBA.

“I think when I even started to think about this 10 months ago, I know how much the game has grown from the time that I played,” Jones said. “And that became even more of a challenge for me, because I know that although I know certain things and played a certain way, that it’s 10 times faster, that the athletes are 10 times more skilled.”

WNBA president Donna Orender, who attended the news conference, said Jones generates interest in the league because she’s a highly accomplished athlete who has competed on a global stage.

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“This is a tremendous, real-life story of a person who made a choice that was not a wise choice, but is saying listen, ‘I’m going to be a role model, I’m going to showcase what I’m going to do with the rest of my life,”’ Orender told The Associated Press. “I join the rest of America in wanting to watch this story unfold.”

Jones will join a team that is a work in progress. All-Stars Deanna Nolan and Katie Smith had agreed to contract extensions, but apparently won’t play for Tulsa when the season begins in May.

Richardson said Nolan has indicated she intends to skip the upcoming season to rest instead of relocating with the team, which moved from Detroit in the offseason. And Smith, a six-time All-Star, has already said she doesn’t plan to play in Tulsa and is listed as a free agent by the league.

Also unknown is how much of an initial draw the city’s only major pro sports team will be. Tulsa County has a population of about 592,000 and Tulsa is the second-smallest city with a WNBA franchise, behind Uncasville, Conn.,—where the Sun play in a casino that draws millions of visitors per year.

RELATED: OPINION: Where Are The Black Athletes For Obama?

“She made some ill-advised decisions in the past, but everyone deserves a second chance to excel at something they love,” Swetoha said. “The city of Tulsa gave a struggling franchise from Detroit a second chance, and I’m confident it will do the same for Marion. We couldn’t be happier to have her on board.”

The Shock will play at 18,000-seat BOK Center downtown. The franchise itself has a great pedigree: The Shock made their WNBA debut in 1998 and won titles in 2003, 2006 and 2008.

Richardson, who led Arkansas to the men’s NCAA championship the same year Jones won the title at North Carolina, plans to play the same “40 Minutes of Hell” style in the WNBA.

“Watching her go through drills, I saw a player who’s perfect for our system,” Richardson said. “The one thing I do know is she can run, and any player on my team who wants to be successful needs be able to run.”

TOKYO (AP)—For Japan’s Mai Sato, watching all those gold medals being handed out in Vancouver is a bittersweet experience.
Sato knows the demands of being the best. In her world, blisters are the rule, bruises a way of life. And the training—five hours a day, five days a week.

The world champion in her sport, Sato is as athletic, dedicated and competitive as the Olympians representing their nations. And she thinks it’s high time her discipline, too, got some real recognition.

Still, pole dancing? In the Olympics?

Absolutely, say thousands of pole dancers and the rapidly growing number of international and national federations transforming what was once the exclusive property of strip clubs and cheap bars into a respectable—and highly athletic — event.

“I could definitely see pole dancing in the Olympics,” said Sato, who, a dancer since the age of three, out-twirled a bevy of athletes from 11 countries at the second International Pole Dancing Fitness Championships in Tokyo two months ago. “I would love to win a gold medal.”
It’s admittedly a high bar.

Established sports such as squash and cricket have failed to make the Olympic cut, baseball and softball were recently given the ax, and the International Olympic Committee’s decision to end its support of nonofficial, demonstration sports after the Summer Games in 1992 has made gaining a foothold, the way judo and taekwondo did, all that much harder.

Plus, pole dancing needs to first gain IOC recognition as a sport—an uphill battle if ever there was one.

No matter, pole dance enthusiasts say.

Hong Kong-based Ania Przeplasko, the founder of the International Pole Dancing Fitness Association, the sport’s fledgling supervisory body, believes Olympic recognition is only a matter of time and would be a victory for underappreciated sports worldwide.

“There will be a day when the Olympics see pole dancing as a sport,” she said. “The Olympic community needs to acknowledge the number of people doing pole fitness now. We’re shooting for 2012.”

That’s pretty ambitious.

It’s already too late for any new sports to be added to the London Games. But the IOC decision to end its support of exhibition sports after Barcelona has not completely closed the door on Olympic hopefuls looking for a way to showcase their skills—Beijing did it with the martial art wushu.

Pole dance advocates note that more unlikely sports have gotten the IOC’s nod.

Tug of war, for example, was one of the early Olympic medal contests. Equestrian events are in the Olympics, but who owns a horse? Curling, which virtually no one pays any attention to in non-Olympic years, has become one of the Winter Games’ biggest darlings. Though they are not in the games, the IOC recognizes such obscure sporting endeavors as boules, powerboating, bandy and floorball.

KT Coates, a leading pole dancer in Britain and director of Vertical Dance, is leading the effort to make pole dancing a “test” event in 2012 and foresees a more formal pitch in 2016, when the Olympics go to Rio de Jeneiro.

“After a great deal of feedback from the pole dance community, many of us have decided that it’s about time pole fitness is recognized as a competitive sport, and what better way for recognition than to be part of the 2012 Olympics held in London,” Coates wrote in a petition she is readying for the London organizers.

“It has the wow factor,” she told The Associated Press in an e-mail.

So far, the petition has about 4,000 signatures. Coates is shooting for 5,000.

Iina Laatikainen, one of Finland’s top pole teachers, likens pole dancing to skateboarding and snowboarding, two sports that have gotten serious mainstream attention without completely abandoning their rebellious roots.

“I think getting in the Olympics would be great for the sport,” she said. “I actually see a lot of similarities in what pole dancing is now for women with what skateboarding used to be for men back in the day. Pole dancing is definitely on its way to becoming a mainstream sport.”
But some pole dancers worry the sensual side of pole dancing, and its counterculture undertones, would be destroyed in an effort to clean it up for the Olympics. After all, would it really be the same without stilettos, a boozy audience and a red-tinted spotlight? And how do you score for sexiness?

Others fear old-school pole dancers would be eaten alive by gymnasts, who could easily make the conversion from other apparatuses, circus performers or Chinese acrobats, who have a long tradition of performing aerial tricks.

“I don’t need to see pole dancing in the Olympics,” said Wendy Traskos, co-founder of the U.S. Pole Dance Federation, which will be hosting its annual U.S. championships next month. “I don’t think this is necessarily the path that we need to take, as a sport.”

Traskos, a former competitive gymnast who lives in New York, believes pole dancing needs to do more groundwork before it shoots for the Olympics. In particular, scoring for competitions needs to be standardized, she said, adding that the names of the techniques vary among different clubs in different regions.

“I feel there are many small, tiny, steps that need to be taken before this sport, or any sport, can get into the Olympics,” she said. “We are on, like, tiny step 10 of 1,000.”

Nevertheless, she said pole dancers on the medal podium is not as wild a dream as it might have seemed just five years ago.
“Now, when you talk about it you don’t hear ‘like a stripper’ anymore,” she said. “You hear things like, ‘Oh, my friend takes classes for fitness’ or ‘Yes, I’ve seen it on Oprah.”

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Shani Davis Wins Gold In Men’s 1,000 Speedskating

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RICHMOND, British Columbia — The color of the medal mattered, not the color of his skin.

All Shani Davis was thinking about was gold.

With a furious kick on the final lap Wednesday, Davis stuck his skate across the line and won his second straight Olympic title in 1,000-meter speedskating, the first skater to win this event twice at the Winter Games.

“That race depleted me 100 percent,” he said. “I never want to leave anything on the track.”

No worries there.

RELATED: GALLERY: Chicagoans Protest 2016 Olympics Bid

The Americans broke their medal drought at the Richmond Olympic Oval with a flourish, claiming two spots on the podium. Chad Hedrick, who won three medals at the 2006 games, took a surprising bronze after struggling to regain his motivation in the wake of Italy.

“I had to dig down deep and find my passion for speedskating again,” the Texan said.

Davis dug deep on his final lap, knowing he needed a little more speed to catch South Korea’s Mo Tae-bum. The American world-record holder swung both arms twice before leaning into the final turn, giving him just enough of a boost for a time of 1 minute, 8.94 seconds.

Mo, who won gold in the 500 two days ago, settled for silver this time, 18-hundreths behind Davis. Hedrick was next in 1:09.32.

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“Those last 200, 300 meters were very difficult,” said Davis, who usually leaves his left arm on his back until the last straightaway. “I was just trying to carry my speed. I could feel it leaving me. It doesn’t matter what it looks like, just as long as you get across the line as quick as you could.”

When he won this race four years ago, Davis became the first African-American athlete to win an individual gold at the Winter Games. This time, he simply wanted to be known for his skating.

“When you’re a world champion or an Olympic champion, you get this little thing on your back called a target,” Davis said. “To go out there and win the 1,000 meters twice is truly amazing.”

Davis pumped his fist in the air and slapped hands with the U.S. coaches on the backstretch. Then, as he coasted around near the finish line, Hedrick skated over to shake his hand firmly and pat him on the back several times.

Their accomplishments in 2006 — Davis won a gold and silver; Hedrick a medal of each color — were overshadowed by a nasty feud stemming from the team pursuit. Davis wanted to stick with his individual events, a decision that peeved Hedrick, who believed it cost the Americans a shot at a medal.

Their animosity boiled over at a news conference after the 1,500, in which Davis finished second and Hedrick third. Hedrick brought up the team pursuit, and Davis stormed out of the room complaining that Hedrick didn’t congratulate him on his gold, only the silver.

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No hard feelings this time.

“All that stuff that was done before, man, that is old news,” Hedrick said. “I just hope people will look at us in a different light and think, man, those guys are good athletes, rather than wondering who wants to fight with who.”

The two stood together on the victory stand, each holding one end of an American flag.

“Him and I getting together and carrying the American flag, I think that shows that, you know what, people misread us,” Hedrick said. “We just want to win.”

For Davis, these games have been so much more enjoyable than his last two Olympics. In 2002, he was accused of benefiting from a fixed race to get on the short track team as an alternate and in Turin, the dispute with Hedrick certainly rubbed him the wrong way.

“It is my moment. It is my party,” Davis said. “I can celebrate. I can dance. I can do whatever I want. I earned it.”

Mo held up two fingers, representing both his finish and his total haul from these games. South Korea extended its impressive showing with two golds and two silvers in the first five events.

“I could have done better,” Mo said through a translator. “Shani had the greater technique in turning the corners.”

Skating in the same pair with Mo, Hedrick nearly clipped a lane marker in the first turn and appeared to lose valuable time, but he’s always been a strong finisher. Amazingly, he nearly caught the fading Korean at the line.

That turned out to be good enough for bronze, giving Hedrick medals in four different Olympic events, a range that surely makes the former inline champion one of the most versatile skaters in U.S. history.

Davis is carving out quite a legacy for himself, too.

He became just the third American male to win more than one speedskating gold medal, joining Eric Heiden (five at the 1980 Lake Placid Games) and Irving Jaffee (two golds at the ’32 Games, also in Lake Placid).

Lee Kyou-hyuk, a 31-year-old from South Korea skating in his fifth Olympics, hasn’t been able to win a medal of any color. He again failed to make the podium, finishing ninth in 1:09.92.

The Americans put all four skaters in the top 10 after being shut out of the medals through the first four events. Nick Pearson was seventh in 1:09.79, while Trevor Marsicano took 10th in 1:10.11.

Maybe the U.S. team benefited from the Colbert bump.

Stephen Colbert, who stepped in to sponsor the team with fan donations after the American program lost their main benefactor, made his first appearance at the oval in suburban Vancouver. The faux talk-show host met with several skaters before the event, wearing a red coat with “Assistant Sports Psychologist” emblazoned on the back.

Then he watched the U.S. claim its first two medals on the long track.

Next up for the men is Saturday’s 1,500, a race in which Davis holds the world record but could get a strong challenge from Hedrick, the only skater to beat him at that distance during the World Cup season.

“With me not having as good of a start, I have to pretty much focus on the 1,500,” Hedrick said. “This is a great sign for me, only losing by four-tenths in the 1,000 and knowing that Saturday is a longer race.”

From Seun Adbiyi At The Huffington Post

As a 26 year-old African-American, I don’t know which is more difficult: trying to make history as the first Nigerian delegate in the Winter Olympics, or finding a donor for a bone marrow transplant.

In June 2009, just days after graduating from Yale Law School, I was diagnosed with two rare and aggressive forms of cancer: lymphoblastic lymphoma and stem-cell leukemia. Instead of a grueling Olympic training regimen for the skeleton — an 80 mph headfirst plunge down a mile-long ice chute — I underwent an equally grueling cycle of high dose chemotherapy during a seven-week hospital stay at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

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From HuffingtonPost.com:

A conservative watchdog group is suing Mayor Daley and the city for failing to turn over information about the Obama administration’s involvement in Chicago’s failed Olympic bid.

The Washington, D.C.-based Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court Thursday accusing the Daley administration of failing to respond to a FOIA request sent in September.

The group thinks there’s something fishy about the White House granting Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett an ethics waiver to help spearhead Chicago’s bid and is seeking a vast array of documents to help prove its case.

Among the information the group seeks is, “[a]ll correspondence between the Office of the Mayor and President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel [sic], Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, the White House, and/or the Office of Olympic, Paralympic, and Youth Sport regarding the City of Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.”

“The Obama White House’s failed Olympics bid is a scandal,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a press release. “Why else would Obama’s ‘Olympics Czar’ Valerie Jarrett need an ‘ethics waiver’ to lead the campaign to bring the Olympics to Chicago? Mayor Daley’s illegal refusal to release documents about the Olympics bid is a rather transparent effort to protect President Obama and other key White House officials.”

Jarrett, who was a vice chair of the Chicago 2016 bid committee before joining the White House, needed the waiver, according to a Tribune report at the time, “because the White House ethics pledge prohibits appointees from dealing with matters ‘substantially related’ to previous employers or clients.”

Jarrett’s waiver, and the White House’s full rationale for it, can be seen here.

Click here to read more.

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OPINION: Why Olympics Bid Loss Is  A Victory For Chicago

Rio de Janeiro Wins 2016 Olympic Bid

From the Huffington Post:

I am absolutely reeling with shock that Chicago was knocked out in the first round and the 2016 Olympics are going to Rio de Janeiro. Some quick thoughts about Victoria Brasilia and the Chicago/Daley/Obama humiliation.

RELATED: Rio de Janeiro Wins 2016 Olympics Bid

1 – This is a victory for the people of Chicago. Pushing back against immense pressure from the Daley political machine, organizations like No Games Chicago went grass roots, corner to corner, and spoke out against the Olympic storm of gentrification, tax hikes, and police misconduct. Certainly one reason the U.S. got the high hat was the lingering bad taste of George W. Bush. The global community, after eight years of sneering contempt from Washington DC, isn’t ready to rinse with the Obama mouthwash.

But it’s the community activists of Chicago who should feel a tremendously gratified. They — along with the millions of Chicagoans who expressed their trepidation in polls — saved their city. They have every right to say with pride, “THAT’S the Chicago way!”

2 – Barack Obama may not be feeling it, but he is the luckiest man alive right now. Yes, President Obama traveled all the way to Copenhagen and didn’t even get a lousy t-shirt, but he is damn fortunate it went down like it did. Obama is the first U.S. President to ever appear before the International Olympic Committee and plea for the games. If they had come to the Windy City, it would have been an eight-year distraction and political gold for his opponents. Every time an Olympic project came in late and over budget, every time a scandal hit the tabloids, every time a crime was captured on a cell phone camera it would have been “Obama’s Olympic Folly.” Imagine Rush Limbaugh or Glen Beck oozing over to Chicago with every blip in the process. It would have all been at best a distraction and at worst, and endless spigot of champagne for his enemies. The person who really has egg on his face is Mayor Richard Daley. He wanted to show everyone he was a bigger man — and mayor — than his Daddy with an Olympic sized stadia to boot. Now expect all the Daley arm-twisting and all the dirty skulduggery in the lead up to both come to light and come home to roost.

RELATED: “It’s A Battle, Take No Prisoners,” Says First Lady Of Olympics Bid

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The Rio de Janeiro delegation celebrates after they are announced winner

Chicago was eliminated in the first round of the voting and Tokyo went out in the second round.

Chicago Bid Chairman Patrick Ryan said pursuing the Games was worth it even though Chicago lost in the first round.

“I don’t want to call it trouble. We introduced Chicago to the world. Chicago is so much better known today and appreciated and respected — all around the world,” Ryan said. “Chicagoans can hold their heads high. We’re sorry we didn’t bring home a victory.”

Ryan said he had not talked to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley because the mayor had left the hall and returned to the hotel where Chicago’s delegation is encamped.

“He did what I should do, go over and talk to those Chicagoans,” Ryan said.

Bid leaders had said all along that the big hurdle would be clearing the first round of voting. That turned out to be Chicago’s undoing, Ryan said, acknowledging that there was a “wet eye or two” in the room when the crushing announcement came early.

“All we know is that the first round is always the most dangerous,” Ryan said. “Obviously we didn’t have a large region of support. We have two Canadians and two from Mexico … and others have much larger regions. No idea how close it was.”

U.S. Olympic Committee chairman Larry Probst and chief executive Stephanie Streeter both declined comment when approached by reporters soon after Chicago was eliminated.

“No comment. We will talk later,” Probst said.

To read more, click here.

Source: Chicago Tribune

Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid Rejected In 1st Round [Updated 10.02.09, at 11:45 a.m.]

Chicago, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid made final pitches to the International Olympic Committee to be selected later Friday as host of the 2016 Olympics, with President Barack Obama and Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pitting their star power against each other in emotional pushes for their cities.

Rio and Chicago’s presentations were particularly impassioned. Obama and his wife Michelle both talked about their childhood, while Rio urged the IOC’s members to be bold by taking the games to South America for the first time.

Tokyo presented itself as the best city for the athletes, safe and environmentally pioneering. Former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch made an unusual appeal for Madrid, reminding the IOC members as he asked for their vote that, at age 89, “I am very near the end of my time.”

The 103 members will start voting electronically in a secret ballot at 5:10 p.m. (1510 GMT). The vote will take up to 30 minutes. Cities will be eliminated one-by-one until one secures a majority.

The cities’ final presentations represented the finishing line after years of hard work, lobbying, planning and hopes. They had 45 minutes and follow-up questions to sway undecided IOC members, of which there were many after a long, close and at times acrimonious race.

Chicago presented first, with videos and speeches – capped by Obama’s plea. Obama used his stature as a statesman and his own life story for impact, recounting how he was moved around as a child and “never really had roots” but in Chicago, “I finally found a home.”

Obama held out the enticing prospect of a Chicago games helping to reconnect the United States with the world after the presidency of George W. Bush, pledging that the “full force of the White House” would be applied so “visitors from all around the world feel welcome and will come away with a sense of the incredible diversity of the American people.”

“Over the last several years, sometimes that fundamental truth about the United States has been lost,” Obama said. “One of the legacies, I think, of this Olympic Games in Chicago would be a restoration of that understanding of what the United States is all about and the United States’ recognition of how we are linked to the world.”

Rio played up the wow factor of its fabulous scenery, with computer-generated bird’s eye images of how venues would be spread across the city, with sailing in the shadow of Sugar Loaf mountain and volleyball on Copacabana beach. The governor of the central bank said Brazil’s economic vibrancy should reassure IOC members, and the head of Rio state played down concerns over security.

But Rio’s hardest sell was that the IOC could ignore South America no longer.

“It is a time to address this imbalance,” Silva said. “It is time to light the Olympic cauldron in a tropical country.”

Rio bid president Carlos Nuzman, who is also an IOC member, added: “When you push the button today, you have the chance to inspire a new continent, make Olympic history.”

Speaking for Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pledged that the city “will show the world how a major metropolis can flourish without detriment to the environment.”

Madrid portrayed itself as a low-risk option, saying that 77 percent of the needed infrastructure for the games was already in place.

“This is a sure candidacy,” Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said.

An uncomfortable moment for Chicago came when an IOC member from Pakistan, Syed Shahid Ali, noted that going through U.S. customs can be harrowing for foreigners.

Obama responded that he wanted a Chicago games to offer “a reminder that America at its best is open to the world.”

His wife tugged at IOC members’ heart strings by discussing her late father, who had multiple sclerosis. She recounted sitting on his lap, watching Olympians such as Carl Lewis and Nadia Comaneci compete, and how her father “taught me how to throw a ball and a mean right hook.”

“My dad would have been so proud to witness these games in Chicago,” she said.

The high drama will come when IOC president Jacques Rogge announces the name of the winner about an hour after the last votes are cast. He will break open a sealed envelope and declare which city has been awarded the games of the 31st Olympiad.

The winner gets huge prestige and billions of dollars in potential economic benefits, the losers just painful thoughts of what might have been.

Rogge doesn’t vote and, as long as their cities haven’t been eliminated, neither will members from Brazil, the United States, Spain and Japan. Three other members did not attend the session.

That left 95 voters in the first round, with more in subsequent rounds. In the event of a two-city tie in the early rounds, a runoff is held between the cities. If there is a tie in the final round, Rogge can vote or ask the IOC executive board to break the deadlock.

Ahead of the vote, only Tokyo seemed to have fallen out of the running. But otherwise, it was still too close to call between the beaches and bossa nova of Rio, the bustle and Lake Michigan waterfront of Chicago or the European elegance of Madrid.

Everyone had reason to be hopeful, none reason to be sure.

via Associated Press

Maybe this joint-trip to Copenhagen to fight for Chicago 2016 Olympic Games was really a cover. You know, the President’s been so busy with the economy and healthcare, he needed to reconnect with the Mrs… It’s possible considering all this PDA! I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder..

CHECK OUT THE PICS BELOW:

From The Root:

Mr. President, your wife is awesome, so why not let her handle this Chicago Olympics thing?

Like you, the First Lady is smart, charismatic and tough. If there’s any shrinking violet part of her, we have yet to see it–except for maybe when she lets you be taller than she is. Unlike you, she won’t be blamed into perpetuity for the fate of our nation.

RELATED: First Lady Will Advocate For Chicago To Host 2016 Olympics

The Olympics are neat and all but we, the people of America, who are somewhere between concerned and out-of-our-gourd insane regarding various issues, would appreciate your focus. As Jason Zengerle points out in the New Republic:

the fate of comprehensive health care reform is hanging by a thread up on Capitol Hill and the Pentagon is awaiting the commander-in-chief’s word on the way forward in Afghanistan, and Obama’s going to take time out of his busy schedule to schmooze with the Princess of Liechtinstein and the 105 other worthies on the I.O.C.’s selection committee?

If he goes to Copenhagen and the I.O.C. picks Rio, he suffers a completely unnecessary defeat on the world stage; it’s one thing to stake your prestige on a global climate change treaty or tougher sanctions on Iran and fail, but to do it for a sporting event just seems ludicrous. And what happens if Obama does succeed and manages to bring the games to Chicago? Well, to quote one-time U.S. men’s basketball national team member Derrick Coleman, “Whoop-dee-damn-do.”

RELATED: “It’s A Battle, Take No Prisoners,” Says First Lady Of Olympics Bid

Mr. President, your wife is Michelle Obama. She doesn’t need your help, especially when you have more presidential matters to deal with.

Click here to read more.

via Getty Images

“Demonstrators try to escape from police after interfering with city workers who were hanging an Olympic banner on the Picasso statue in Daley Plaza, reflecting the city’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics,September 29, 2009 in Chicago, Illinois. About five people were arrested after more than 15 police cars responded to the incident. The International Olympic Committee is scheduled to announce October 2 which city will be selected to host the games.”

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ROUND UP: Obama And Congress Content With Politics As Usual

From CNN:

First lady Michelle Obama vowed Monday to “take no prisoners” as she and her husband launch an unprecedented bid for Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid.

“It’s a battle — we’re going to win — take no prisoners,” the first lady said with a smile at a roundtable discussion with reporters in the White House State Dining Room.

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She compared the intense lobbying effort to the 2008 presidential campaign, noting that in the election campaign, a lot of voters made their decision in the final days. She said members of the International Olympic Committee may do the same.

“And our view is, we’re not taking a chance,” she said. “We’re just not going to assume that the bids — that the decisions are made, and so that no matter what the outcome is, we’ll feel as a country, as a team, that we’ve done everything that we can to bring it home.”

The White House confirmed Monday that President Obama will fly on Thursday to Copenhagen, Denmark, where the International Olympic Committee will be reviewing bids from several countries on Friday. It will be the first time that an American president has lobbied the IOC in this manner.

Mrs. Obama arrives in Copenhagen on Wednesday with White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and other top aides.

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“What a dynamic duo they will be,” Jarrett said. “I think it will be high impact, I think their presentation will be both very personal, given that they know and love Chicago so well.”

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A top White House adviser said first lady Michelle Obama is planning to make a dramatic presentation when she offers the closing argument for the bid by her hometown of Chicago to win the 2016 Summer Olympics.

“There won’t be a dry eye in the room,” said Valerie Jarrett, who plans to travel with the first lady to Copenhagen for the Oct. 2 International Olympic Committee vote.

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“I’m sure that it will touch the hearts of each of the IOC members,” Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said today in an interview.

Jarrett declined to say what the first lady will tell the IOC. The stakes are high because winning the games would be an economic boost nationally, as well as for Chicago, she said.

“It will be a huge economic engine for Chicago, but it will have a ripple effect throughout the country,” Jarrett said, adding that U.S. corporations have voiced support for Chicago’s bid.

Michelle Obama is leading the U.S. delegation to Copenhagen, where the IOC will choose among Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

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Getting the games would mean billions of dollars in construction, tourism, sponsorships and advertising, as well as national prestige. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has pledged his city will take financial responsibility for the undertaking, now budgeted at $4.8 billion.

McDonald’s Corp., based in Oak Brook, Illinois, is one of the many Chicago-area companies following the bid. The fast- food company is one of nine global Olympic sponsors with exclusive marketing rights.

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[SOURCE: Bloomberg News]

BRUSSELS — Usain Bolt may go for four gold medals at the 2012 Olympics in London.

However, the world’s fastest man won’t be making the decision whether to attempt the feat achieved by Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis.

“For me, I don’t know,” Bolt said, when asked about the possibility of chasing four golds. “I always leave the decisions up to my coach.”

Speaking ahead of Friday’s Van Damme Memorial track and field meet, Bolt said if it were up to him, he would add the long jump to the 100, 400-relay and 200 meter sprints, rather than the 400.

In Beijing, his coach Glen Mills did not confirm Bolt for the 100 until the last moment, despite the fact that he was the world record holder. Of course, Bolt went on to win the 100, 200 and 100-relay golds, all in world-record times.

After a second golden triple at the Berlin world championships last month, Bolt could be the first male track athlete to earn four Olympic golds at the same games since Lewis at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Owens won four Olympic golds at the 1936 Berlin Games.

It would also place Bolt — who has declared his desire to become “a legend” — in the most exalted of company. Bolt said if he does decide to go for four, it would take meticulous preparation.

“You don’t want to try something new and then something goes wrong,” he said.

Bolt said he has such faith in his coach that he would go against his own wishes if Mills thought it would be better for him to tackle the 400 rather that the long jump. Owens and Lewis each added the long jump to their three sprint events.

Bolt already ran some 400s early in the season to boost his stamina for the 200.

“It really gives you speed and endurance,” the Jamaican sprinter said. “The 400 I don’t want to do, but I think I’ll do it in the future because my coach can be very convincing. And he’ll find some argument for me to do it.”

Bolt would prefer the long jump, relying on his natural speed to send him flying.

“I think I would be pretty good. I tried it when I was young, just messing around,” he said.

For the moment though, he’s focusing on the 200 at the Van Damme. He tried out the new Mondo track on Wednesday and wants to beat the 19.79 second stadium record set by Tyson Gay three years ago.

“19.70 is my goal on Friday,” said Bolt, who had a blistering run of 19.19 in Berlin to shatter his own world record.

Gay will only run the 100 because of a lingering groin injury.

From BBC.com:

Analysis prior to the World Athletics Championships and the 18-year-old’s big improvement prompted calls for a gender test from the sport’s governing body.

It was made public only hours before the South African, who has been backed by her nation, won the 800m in Berlin.

A high level of the hormone does not always equate to a failed drugs test.

But the news will only increase speculation surrounding Semenya, who arrived back in South Africa to a rapturous welcome on Tuesday.

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