America Not Ready To Host Olympics for a While
Yesterday the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that the 2016 Olympics will be held in the beautiful Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. Rio is the first South American city to host the Olympics. Americans in general do not follow the Olympics or news surrounding the Olympics as many other countries do (this is very surprising since America historically is one of the most dominant performers in the Olympics). Television ratings for the Olympics are less than an average American football game. Most of the events are not telecast live either.
The coverage of the IOC announcement was different because of one reason. The American President (Barak Obama) went to Copenhagen to present the case on behalf of Chicago (the city he is from). Some of his opponents felt that the President should not visit Copenhagen. What I found very interesting about these debates was that there was very little information about the cities competing with Chicago for the Olympics or the process involved in selecting the city (some reports indicate that in the past bribes and not merit was the key). The television debates had the usual Republican vs. Democratic shouting match and I was not interested.
On the day of the announcement I was listening to one of the top rated sports radio shows in the city of Philadelphia. One of the hosts has the habit of making fun of Gisele Bundchen (Gisele is highest paid and also one of the top models in the world. She is from Brazil). Gisele is married to Tom Brady who is the Quarterback for the New England Patriots. Whenever this host makes fun of Gisele he always does it by trying to speak in Spanish. What the host and any of his listeners (hundreds of whom call him every week) have not realized so far is that Brazil was a former Portuguese colony and Brazilians speak Portuguese and not Spanish (Mexicans, many Central and South Americans and some people in the Caribbean speak Spanish).
Once the IOC awarded the Olympics to Rio the talk show host was wondering aloud how Brazil is going to host this event. Are they capable of hosting an event this big he asked his viewers? He did not provide any reason for feeling that way (my assumption is that he thinks Brazil is another third world South American country). For the record Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world (bigger than India). Brazil has the tenth largest economy in the world (bigger than India). It also has one of the highest economic growth rates matched only by a few countries like India and China.
Chicago is the second largest city in America. I have visited this city many times and the downtown area is spectacular. The view from the top of the Sears Towers is as good as the view from the Empire State Building in Manhattan. It is also one of the richest cities in the world (16th according to UBS). But the reality is that the glory days are behind Chicago like many other American cities. America and American cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York are facing deep financial crisis. These cities are cutting major programs and borrowing money to stay afloat (during the month of September Brazil’s foreign exchange reserves reached a record $224 billion. United States on the other hand is facing an $11 trillion debt which is growing at the rate of $3 billion per day!!!).
In this context is it wise for a talk show host to make fun of Brazilians or challenge the capabilities of Brazil to host an Olympics? The appropriate question to be asked is whether America and Chicago are capable of hosting the Olympics. I think that the IOC knew something that many Americans are not willing to admit. Chicago and other great cities of the past no longer capture the imagination of the citizens of the world. Cities like Rio, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Jakarta are the cities of the future.
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Category: Sports & Entertainment