US Olympics Chief Will Step Down

Effort to land 2016 Games 'third or fourth'

(NEWSER) - Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics is falling behind its main foreign rivals, the chairman of the US Olympic Committee said today. The Chicago Tribune reports that Peter Ueberroth, who captained Los Angeles' 1984 Games, puts Chicago's effort fourth among cities vying for the 2016 Olympics, behind Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo. More»

IOC shows us the world still likes to thumb its nose at American power

(NEWSER) - The first-round knockout of Chicago’s Olympic bid speaks to an unpleasant fact, writes Mike Lopresti: “A lot of people out there don't like us. They don't care if President Obama is eloquent and the first lady is charming.” If it had come down to just Chicago and Rio, with South America never having hosted the games before, that would’ve been one thing. But “to be the first city eliminated speaks to something deeper. This was a repudiation.” More»

President, first lady stump for their hometown ahead of Olympic vote

(NEWSER) - Barack and Michelle Obama made an impassioned call today to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago, which the president called the "most American of American cities." In his pitch to the International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen, the president told of how he became "a proud Chicagoan" after a peripatetic childhood and fell in love with the diversity and ambition of the Second City. The first lady made a deeply personal presentation. She spoke about how her father instilled a love of sports in all of his children despite his battle with multiple sclerosis. More»

Rio, Madrid, or Tokyo could leave Obamas empty-handed this week

(NEWSER) - Barack and Michelle Obama arrive in Denmark tomorrow, hoping to win the 2016 Olympics for their hometown. The Windy City has an impressive bid, proposing events in the city's parks and a lakefront Olympic Village. But three other cities are lobbying hard, and any could get the Games come Friday.

• Madrid: Spain has valuable experience from the Barcelona Games, and events would take place in Real Madrid's famous soccer stadium. But after London 2012, another European city is a tough sell. And Madrid's 100-degree summers don't help.

Too many actually pressing issues, and what if he goes and Chicago is snubbed?

(NEWSER) - Aside from showing love for his adopted hometown, President Obama’s decision to go to Copenhagen to lobby for Chicago as host of the 2016 Summer Olympics is drawing a chorus of boos from the punditocracy as a gamble that could be embarrassing at best—what if, say, Brazil gets the Games instead, Matthew Cooper wonders—and truly detrimental to the US at worst. More»