Well, according to the IOC, not much. After 3 years of solid planning and millions of dollars spent on their proposal, Chicago was eliminated from contention for the 2016 Summer Olympics in the first round of voting on Friday. Earlier in the day Barack Obama became the first U.S. President to ever lobby to the IOC his plea to bring the games to his adopted home city, and the prez wasn't the only big "O" there to woo the judges. Wife Michelle Obama had arrived in Copenhagen one day earlier to sell Chicago to the world and even Oprah gave her plea via video. Obama spoke to the committee about how much these games would mean for such a diverse culture back home.
Before any decisions had been made, The Obama's were packed up and out of Denmark and watched the results as they came in on TV from the luxury of Air Force One. They, and the world watched as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was awarded the first summer olympics ever to come to South America.
In Rio, a crowd of some 50,000 people celebrated the victory on the famous Copacabana beach and partied into the night while back in the motherland, the mood was much more sombre. A huge defeat in which Chicago was expected to be one of the front runners had all the gas poured out so early in the contest.
Many American's were mad that Chicago was even attempting to host the games. Similar to when Vancouver was bidding to host the 2010 games, most people felt that the money already spent and the $2 billion price tag to host the world if successful should have been focused on other lacking areas of the city.
While the Obama's were out of the country, the Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate had climbed to 9.8 percent last month, the highest level since 1983.
GOP chairman Michael Steele said in a statement, "As President Obama travels to Copenhagen to bring the Summer Olympics to his hometown seven years from now, Americans back home are increasingly concerned they won't have jobs seven months from now as they see more and more of their neighbours and friends losing jobs today."
Perhaps the funniest part of all this is the fact that Americans are always so over confident when it comes to things like this and they were ready to brag once again that they were the victors. But as a camera panned over the large crowd huddled in the downtown core of Chicago, a gigantic sigh in shock arose when they found out their fate much earlier than expected. It was hilarious watching the reaction from CNN anchor, Tony Harris, who seemed to be blown away that much less touted Tokyo and Madrid were still in contention and his "home of the brave" had fallen.
Check out the video and you will see just how much the American's were shocked:
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