With Chicago suffering a shock exit in the first round of voting and with Tokyo following in the next round, it was left to Madrid and Rio to contest the final section.
In an Olympic election the city which obtains the absolute majority of votes is the winner.
The vote
First round: Madrid 28, Rio 26, Tokyo 22, Chicago 18
Second round: Rio 46, Madrid 29, Tokyo 20
Third (final) round: Rio 66, Madrid 32
Rio made a passionate plea to host the Games with President Lula lobbying hard internationally during the past 12 months. Government officials have pledged to inject $11bn into the city which was able to woo the IOC with its message to bring the Games to South America.
There were hugs and tears of joy as the IOC president made the announcement with the Rio team ecstatically punching the air. The Madrid bid team were quite stunned and consoled each other before gathering their composure and congratulating the winning team.
The election in Copenhagen is the culmination of a process which kicked off on 16 May, 2007 when the IOC asked National Olympic Committees to nominate cities as Applicant Cities for the 2016 Games.
Timeline
• 13 September, 2007: the IOC announced the names of seven Applicant Cities, namely, in alphabetical order, Baku (Azerbaijan), Chicago (USA), Doha (Qatar), Madrid (Spain), Prague (Czech Republic), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Tokyo (Japan).
• 4 June, 2008: Four of the seven cities were selected by the IOC’s Executive Board as Candidate Cities.
• 12 February, 2009: the four candidates submitted a Candidature File based on the 17 themes of the IOC’s Candidature Procedure and Questionnaire.
• 17-18 June, 2009: IOC members attended a two-day briefing in Lausanne, during which the Candidate Cities presented the technical aspects of their candidature to them and answered their questions.
Electronic vote
The members vote using an electronic voting system, which immediately and securely tallies the votes.
The electronic voting system was first introduced during the 111th Session in Sydney in 2000 as part of the IOC’s drive to update its policies and procedures.
The voting system is certified by an independent company. How each member votes is not recorded to shield the member from external pressures to vote in a certain way.
If multiple rounds are needed, the city with the least number of votes is eliminated and announced and there is a new round of voting.
The tally of votes per round is reported after the conclusion of the election
“Well done, Rio!”
Following the election, Rogge said, “I would like to congratulate the city of Rio de Janeiro on its election as the host of the 2016 Olympic Games. Rio de Janeiro presented the IOC with a very strong technical bid, built upon a vision of the Games being a celebration of the athletes and sport, as well as providing the opportunity for the city, region and country to deliver their broader long-term aspirations for the future.
“This call to ‘live your passion’ clearly struck a chord with my fellow members, and we now look forward to seeing Rio de Janeiro staging the first Olympic Games on the continent of South America. Well done, Rio!”
He continued, “I would also like to thank Nawal El Moutawakel and her Evaluation Commission team for the excellent work that they undertook and which allowed us to reach today’s decision.”
Games of celebration and transformation
The Rio 2016 Games will be, first and foremost, a celebration of athletes, who will perform in world-class venues all located in the host city itself. The Rio Games will also celebrate and showcase sport, thanks to the city’s stunning setting and a desire to lift event presentation to new heights.
At the same time, Rio 2016 will be an opportunity to deliver the broader aspirations for the long-term future of the city, region and country – an opportunity to hasten the transformation of Rio de Janeiro into an even greater global city.
A sporting celebration
Rio 2016 will provide the best possible environment for peak performances. Athletes will enjoy world-class facilities, including a superb village, all located in one of the world’s most beautiful cities, in a compact layout for maximum convenience.
The competition venues will be clustered in four zones – Barra, Copacabana, Deodoro and Maracanã – and connected by a high-performance transport ring. Nearly half of the athletes will be able to reach their venues in less than 10 minutes, and almost 75 per cent will do so in less than 25 minutes. Of the 34 competition venues, of which 18 are already operational, eight will undergo some permanent works, seven will be totally temporary and nine are constructed as permanent legacy venues.
After Olympic party, hard work ahead for Brazil
TALES AZZONI
AP writer
As Rio awoke from a night of celebration after being awarded the 2016 Olympics, Brazil was already looking ahead to years of hard work in what will be a historic time in Latin America’s biggest nation.
The world’s two biggest sporting events will be taking place in Brazil a few years from now – the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics – and the country has little time to spare in getting ready.
“We know the IOC decision has increased our responsibility,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said. “We know what we need to do. The word from now on is work, work and work.”
Critics have questioned whether Brazil’s infrastructure can handle such large events, and whether the country is safe enough to welcome the participants and tens of thousands of visitors into the country. Others say the events will help Brazil’s emerging status as a world power – with the country predicted as the world’s fifth-largest economy by 2016 – and serve as a catalyst for change and improvement to more than 190 million people.
“Brazil needed the Olympics, we needed this challenge,” Silva said in Copenhagen just hours after Rio beat Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago. “We only needed one chance to prove that we are a great nation and that we have the capacity to do well just like any other country in the world.”
Football’s governing body FIFA in 2007 awarded Brazil the World Cup for the first time since 1950, and the International Olympic Committee on Friday decided to bring the games to South America for the first time.
It will be the fourth time the same nation hosts the Olympics and the World Cup consecutively – Mexico did it in 1968 and 1970, Germany in 1972 and 1974 and the United States in 1994 and 1996.
“That’s something I didn’t think I would see one day in Brazil,” 78-year-old retiree Claudio Correa said while strolling on Ipanema beach. “Two big events like these right here. It certainly puts Brazil’s name right up there.”
Silva said that in addition to giving Brazil the status of a “first-class nation,” the high-profile competitions also give Brazil a boost in pride and self-esteem.
“No one is happier than Brazil’s people,” Silva said. “But maybe because we were a colony for such a long time, we always had this sense of inferiority, of not being important. We always thought that we couldn’t do what the others could.”
But with a sound technical project and a lot of passion, the Brazilians and Rio de Janeiro convinced the IOC they were finally ready to host the Olympics, after failed attempts in 1936, 2004 and 2012.
But there is a lot to do before Brazil can call itself ready to stage the two major competitions.
Despite natural beauties and fun-loving people, the nation also has to deal with poverty, violence and other problems inherent to a developing country. Among the problems that will have to be addressed ahead of 2016 are security and transportation.
“We’ll have to sleep less and do more,” Silva said.
Officials are already getting to work, and members of the new Rio 2016 Organising Committee met with IOC officials on Saturday in Copenhagen to discuss future actions. Committee President Carlos Arthur Nuzman said several meetings in the next few days will be needed to begin organising the city’s plans.
Back home, local media praised Rio’s achievement with front-page headlines across the nation on Saturday.
“Rio deserves it,” the O Dia daily said.
The sports daily Lance wrote that the “The dream became reality.”
Some analysts, however, pointed to the challenges and possible drawbacks the country will have by organising two major competitions in a short period of time.
“This decision is great and we have to celebrate,” columnist and ESPN Brasil TV commentator Antero Greco said. “But we know there will be a lot of public money involved in these competitions and we have the responsibility to make sure this money is going to be well used.”
The Cariocas, as Rio citizens are known, celebrated wildly on Copacabana when IOC President Jacques Rogge announced Rio as the winner on Friday. The party then moved to the beachside bars for the traditional choppe (draft beer) and caipirinha – a Brazilian cocktail made from sugarcane liquor, fresh fruit, sugar and ice.
“There is a lot of reason for Brazilians to be celebrating,” said 25-year-old Ecuadorean Gabriela Baroja. “Brazil will become a better country.”
Why Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago lost
Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara blamed his city’s failure to win the right to host the 2016 Games on behind-the-scenes deals, saying Japanese sports officials must become more adept in dealing with the inner workings of the International Olympic Committee.
“Tokyo’s presentation was far better than the others,” Ishihara said at a press conference after the vote. “But invisible dynamics were at play. It is a game that is very difficult to win.”
Rio de Janeiro beat Madrid to host the 2016 Olympics in the final round of voting by the IOC. Chicago was eliminated after the first round with Tokyo going out in the second round.
Ishihara said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made “daring promises” to African people and that French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to support Rio’s bid if Brazil bought French-made fighter jets.
“I don’t know how relevant these promises were but they seem to be in violation of IOC rules,” Ishihara said. “This is part of the discomfort I have with the bid process.”
The 77-year-old Ishihara said Rio’s win was the result of an internal struggle between former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, who wanted Madrid to win, and current IOC president Jacques Rogge who wanted the games to go to a region that has never hosted them before.
Chicago’s Olympic delegation team returned home empty-handed, with Mayor Richard Daley suggesting a bid for the 2020 Olympics was unlikely but promising the city would come out of the recession even without the economic stimulus of the 2016 Summer Games.
“We have a great city. These are great people. We have a future just as bright as anyone else,” Daley told reporters at O’Hare International Airport.
The delegation, including Daley and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, had just returned from Copenhagen where the International Olympic Committee awarded Rio de Janeiro the games. They tried to put the best face on the loss.
“All those cities said they were the best city. Chicago is the best of the best cities,” Quinn said.
Chicago’s loss was a high-profile international rejection that came despite personal appeals from President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, who flew to Copenhagen to lobby. Chicago was eliminated on Friday in the first round of voting.
Daley said it was “unfair” to suggest losing the Olympics was a defeat for Obama, who calls Chicago home and has a house just a few blocks from where the Olympic Stadium would have been built.
“This is not a loss for Obama. I don’t know where you’re getting this point,” Daley said. “It’s not a loss for the king and queen of Spain, it’s not a loss for the new prime minister of Japan.”
As Madrid’s bid team for the 2016 Olympics returned to Spain, questions remained over what went wrong alongside speculation over another possible run in 2020.
Madrid’s delegates returned from Copenhagen wearing long faces having lost out to Rio de Janeiro in the final round of IOC voting on Friday convinced that their overall package would bring it the games one day.
“Madrid will host the Olympic Games one day because it deserves it,” sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky said upon returning to the Spanish capital.
Although Rio’s victory was possibly a result to sympathy since South America has never been a host, Madrid had its own problems – even if it made it further in the voting than both Tokyo and Chicago.