Topical Tuesday 08 - Chicago's Olympics

Chicago missed out on an opportunity to host the Summer Olympics in 2016. The Windy City was eliminated in the first round of voting. The 2016 Olympics eventually went to Rio de Janeiro where they can fall under the watchful eye of “Offsetting Penalties Jesus.” Some people were upset that Chicago lost out on its bid, especially after President Obama and Oprah Winfrey teamed up to make the case for Chicago. Others have actually celebrated Chicago losing its bid. Some members of the GOP view Chicago’s loss as a defeat for President Obama since he took such a proactive position in support of the city.

I didn’t really care about Chicago hosting the 2016 Olympics. It would have been easier for me to attend the Olympics if they were in Chicago and there would have been less of a time difference as far as television coverage is concerned, but that’s about it. I wasn’t that excited about the Olympics being in Chicago and I don’t know if anyone in Chicago was that excited over the prospect either. The Olympics do generate a lot of revenue for a city but everything also comes to a standstill for seven years as the city prepares to host the Olympics. That kind of commitment for a city takes an even greater commitment from its citizens and a great level of volunteerism.

A sports commentator suggested that Americans lack the commitment necessary to pull off an Olympics and that Americans don’t have the appropriate level of volunteerism. Sadly, I think he may be right. The Olympics would have meant something for Chicago and America, but I think that they’ll mean much more for Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. The Olympics provide an opportunity for people to band together and work toward a common goal. The community-focused culture of Latin America is much more suited to that task than the individual-focused culture of the United States. It is much easier to imagine citizens of Rio de Janeiro making personal sacrifices for the Olympics than any citizen from any American city, not just Chicago.

The Olympics didn’t make it to Chicago and, maybe deep down inside, that’s the way we all wanted it. Sure, America won’t get the benefits of hosting the summer games within our borders, but we also won’t have to make any of the sacrifices over the course of seven years. Life will continue as normal and when 2016 does roll around, we’ll happily watch the opening ceremonies from Rio de Janeiro, thankful that the thousands of people there aren’t clogging up our streets here or passing through our local airports on the way to O’Hare.