Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo are making the final polish to their presentations ahead of the announcement of 2016 Olympic Games host city in Copenhagen on October 2, Xinhua reported.
The vote is expected to be close as IOC president Jacques Rogge believed "there is no favorite".
Even though there might be no favorite among the four bidding cities, there is one person that steal the limelight. To show or not to show. The possibility of US President Barack Obama's attendance at the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen has been interesting the media a lot.
At first, President Obama said the health care reform has to take precedence, although he did want to go to Copenhagen for the bid personally. Meanwhile, he believed that First Lady Michelle Obama, who was going to promote Chicago's bid on the pot, would be a more compelling superstar to represent the city and country.
However, when Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Spain's King Juan Carlos have confirmed their attendance at the vote, Obama might not be reassured enough to stay in the United States. An advance team of the White House has been dispatched to Copenhagen in case Obama will change his mind to join his wife.
Chicago 2016 described a beautiful and convenient scene in their plan as the lakefront Olympic Village will put 90 percent of the athletes within 15 minutes or less of their competition venues and training sites. The budget was considered to be ambitious but achievable by the IOC Evaluation Commission.
Chicago has never held an Olympic Games before but the United States has welcomed two Summer Games and one Winter Games since 1984.
At this point, Rio de Janeiro believed that they had the advantage as the Olympic Games had never come to South America and now it's the right time. Both Madrid and Tokyo couldn't match as well for Spain's Barcelona being the host city at 1992 Olympics and Tokyo holding the Games in 1964.
Rio de Janeiro were also proud of their highest public support rate of 84 percent from citizens while Tokyo blushingly got the lowest of 56 percent, insisting public support had increased after IOC's poll in February.
But a highly compact venue plan and a sound financial guarantee enabled Tokyo to be less humble. All venues except shooting would be within an 8 km radius of the city center, making effective use of the city's extensive and high-capacity public transport network.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has established an "Olympic Hosting Reserve Fund" of 3.7 billion US dollars. The National Government and the City of Tokyo have guaranteed to finance the necessary infrastructure to deliver the Games and to cover any potential economic shortfall in the OCOG budget.
As for Madrid, the Spain capital failed in the 2012 bidding campaign but kept the chin up to restart.
According to the report of IOC Evaluation Commission, Madrid's vision for a 2016 Games is based upon the city's sporting traditions and a strategy to attract major international sports events. It takes advantage of the city's recent and on-going regeneration and urban development.
The 23 out of 33 venues exist and two venues will be built irrespective of the Games. All competition venues except shooting and sailing, the Olympic Village and the IBC/MPC would be within a 10 km radius of the city centre and can be accessed by public transport.
Besides the Highest King, Madrid also invited another first-class supporter Juan Antonio Samaranch, the former IOC president for 21 years to Copenhagen.
However, even Samaranch reportedly admitted that the Achilles heel was that IOC may not want the Games to be held in Europe consecutively as London is preparing for the 2012 Olympics.
Then, back to the conjecture that whether Obama, who said "we want these Games", is going to show up in Copenhagen. Some believed the president's presence is vital citing Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin as models.
No matter what, Lula insisted Rio de Janeiro and Brazil needed the 2016 Olympics most.
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