Samba Olympics - Rio gets thumbs up from IOC

RIO DE JANEIRO/COPENHAGEN - When Rio de Janeiro announced its bid to host the Olympic Games, chances of success seemed very slim.

Problems like urban violence, chaotic traffic and pollution appeared to indicate that the Brazilian city stood little chance against major rivals from the industrialised world with a longer tradition of hosting large sports events.

However, Rio approached Friday’s vote by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Copenhagen as a favourite for the 2016 Games alongside Chicago, with Tokyo and Madrid the other candidates.

“Everyone was expecting at some point a major screw-up by Rio. But that never happened, and the result was the verdict from the (IOC) evaluating commission, which regarded the ‘carioca’ project as ‘very high quality’,” one bid official had told dpa.

A passionate presentation in Copenhagen by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who presented a world map showing South America (and Africa) as a blank Olympic spot, helped sway the votes.

“Rio is ready, give us this chance and you will not regret it,” Lula said.

“I honestly believe it’s Rio’s time…It would send a powerful message that the Olympics belong to all continents, all humanity.”

Chicago lobbyist US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama were left empty-handed, with the US city surprisingly going out in the first round of voting. Tokyo was eliminated in the second voting round, and Madrid were then beaten in the deciding vote.

When IOC president Jacques Rogge announced that “the Games of the 31st Olympiad are awarded to the city of Rio de Janeiro”, the Brazilian camp led by Lula erupted in a collective frenzy in the auditorium in the Bella Center in Copenhagen. Football legend Pele and other delegation members cried tears of joy.

It will be the first Olympics in South America, barely two years after Brazil hosts the 2014 football World Cup.

Taking the Games to new territories - or rather new markets - is one of Rio’s trump cards. Rio has stressed the convenience of bringing the Olympics to an emerging economy and 400 million people.

But there is more to the bid than this “geopolitical” argument.

“In Brazil, we have 15,000 km of dry borders with South American neighbours. These are 400 million people who could not travel to Europe or Asia for the Olympic Games but who will head for Rio by car, in a plane or by boat. Rio had never been so close,” Lula had said earlier in the year.

Rio’s technical plan did not hide problems but also highlighted the positive social impact the Olympics would have on the city.

Accommodation is a classic example of creative solutions within the overall proposed budget of $11 billion.

Hotel beds are far below IOC requirements and Rio 2016 executive secretary Carlos Roberto Osorio told dpa it was not realistic to propose construction of new hotels that would presumably never be used again after the Games.

“That is why we opted to build three villages - one for the media, one for the athletes, and one for technical officials - and to make the most of accommodation in large cruise ships,” he said, guaranteeing the required 48,000 beds.

Osorio also said that “not one question was left unanswered” by Rio when the IOC evaluating commission came to town in late April.