Your presence is requested; IOC member says voters would ‘love’ to meet Obama before 2016 vote

IOC member said Obama’s absence would be ‘noted’

CHICAGO — President Barack Obama has some fans in the International Olympic Committee.

Obama’s absence at next month’s vote to award the 2016 Games would be noticed, IOC member Dick Pound said Monday. But he’s not sure how it would affect Chicago’s chances to bring the Summer Olympics back to the United States for the first time since 1996.

“I don’t think there’s an IOC member on the planet that wouldn’t love to meet your president. He’s a transformational figure in the world today,” Pound said at a symposium on the 2016 Games sponsored by DePaul and the McCormick Foundation. “If he can be persuaded to go, I think it makes a huge difference.”

Chicago is in a tight contest with Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo, and the presence of world leaders has been instrumental in the most recent votes. Tony Blair helped London land the 2012 Games when he met IOC members in Singapore in 2005, and Vladimir Putin traveled to Guatemala City in 2007 to push Sochi’s winning bid for the 2014 Winter Games.

Obama has been an ardent supporter of his adopted hometown’s bid for the Olympics, videotaping four messages for IOC members in recent months. But he called IOC president Jacques Rogge — personally — last week to say his priority right now must be the fight to reform the health care system.

The White House is sending first lady Michelle Obama, a Chicago native who is wildly popular in her own right, to Copenhagen ahead of the Oct. 2 vote. Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s top advisers and former vice chair of Chicago 2016, will also travel to Denmark.

Brazil’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva already has said he’ll be in Copenhagen, as will King Juan Carlos of Spain. Japan has invited incoming Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Crown Prince Naruhito to attend.

“The risk is, your competitors are going to say ‘Oh well, you know, he’s too busy to come, but he sent his wife.’ How that would play, I don’t know,” Pound said.

Send both Obamas, though, and it would be a “pretty dynamic duo.”

But it’s the president that would impress the IOC members most — and have the biggest impact.

“If you have a popular and transformational leader and you don’t use him, you’re not maximizing your chances,” Pound said. “To the extent that the mayor and Pat Ryan can twist the presidential arm, they should do that. I think it could make a huge difference.”