First Lady Michelle Obama Wins Figurative Gold Medal at Copenhagen IOC!

UPDATE 2PM EST:

PARTY IN RIO. News at 11.

Update: 12EST:
Chicago NOO! Even Barack Obama couldn't convince the IOC that Chicago wants, no, DESERVES the 2016 Olympics. Americans are making grabby hands, and the IOC said not yet.

Chicago was seen as a leader in the field-- America is good at hosting the Olympics, the last Summer Games in the US took place in Atlanta in 1996, and Chicago spent 4 years and $50 million to woo the IOC. But the IOC would not be wooed.

Chicago lost out in the first round of voting. The USOC was apparently stunned and had no comment. STUNNED. Like with phasers.

9am:
Okay, everybody, today's the big day! In a day that recalls the incredible power of the human will to triumph over all odds in the spirit of peace, good sportsmanship, and healthy international competition, the International Olympic Committee will decide the city for the 2016 Olympic Games!!!

Will it be Chicago, City of Dreams and Architecture?! (Answer: No.)


Or perhaps Tokyo, City of Bright Lights and Bullet Trains?! (Answer: No.)


Or maybe Rio de Janeiro, City of Carnival and the Samba?! (Answer: Yes.)


Or possibly Madrid, City of Spanish Gold and Bull Fights?! (Answer: No.)

The BBC is running an up-to-the-minute live blog of the hearings. As they say:

An International Olympic Committee ceremony in Copenhagen, due to conclude some time after 1730 BST, will select the hosts of the 2016 Olympic Games and it has come down to that quartet. Bed down now for a day of twists, turns, votes and vol-au-vents as I bring you all the gossip and news from Denmark, where experts have already been describing this as the closest bid process in history. It could be a bumpy ride.

I want to go on that ride! As such, look for up-to-date updates (hmmm, I think I'm being redundant) on the proceedings. I will be honest, I am not in Copenhagen. I also have a job. So it might be largely copy-pasted from the BBC site. BUT STILL.

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama made the case for Chicago. Apparently the president was a little jet lagged, and, as such, only won the figurative silver medal in Pitching Your City To The IOC, which is actually a little known event in the decathlon (hahaha, jokes). According to CNN:

First Lady Michelle Obama, who's been here a couple of days, cleary took the gold with an emotional speech focused on her family's roots in the the South Side of Chicago and her late father's battle with multiple sclerosis.

"Sports were a gift I shared with my dad — especially the Olympic Games," Mrs. Obama said in her portion of the U.S. delegation's final presentation to the International Olympic Committee here. "Some of my best memories are sitting on my dad's lap, cheering on Olga and Nadia, Carl Lewis, and others for their brilliance and perfection."

Mrs. O gets extra points: first, for mentioning BOTH the Olympics and the Paralympics. Second, for this statement about her father: "He taught me how to throw a ball and a mean right hook better than any boy in our neighborhood," she said. FLOTUS FTW.

Oh man, amazing. Let's see how the others stack up. Check back in shortly.

Sport Solves Cuban Missile Crisis!

"Sport reaches areas far beyond any sphere of political influence and has probably done more to unify nations than any politician has been capable of." --Nelson Mandela

"The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."
--Olympic Charter

The Olympics holds a strange and quirky place in International Affairs. After all, where else can the North Koreans and the South Koreans officially stand under the same flag? (Without Kim Jong Il hovering his finger over some big red button, that is. And even though people might say "BAD Kim Jong Il, nobody gets to touch the button, the man is Kim Jong Il! What are you going to do about it?)

The International Olympic Committee is a Non-Governmental Organization that is charged with the mission of promoting the Olympic Movement throughout the world. What is the "Olympic Movement"? you might ask. Well, it includes such bullet points as:

1. Olympism is a philosophy of life,exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.

and

5. Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.

The Olympics is about competition, sure, but it's also about the promotion of peace, goodwill, and understanding through competition. And here's the thing: sometimes it works.

Of course, sometimes it doesn't work. I could mention the 1936 Berlin Games (the Hitler Olympics) or the 1972 Munich Games (where terrorists killed 11 athletes). But let us focus instead on my example from before. In 2000, North Korea and South Korea marched into the Sydney stadium under a single flag. Two athletes, one from each country, marched out in front of a unified team. These countries have had a flag battle at the DMZ for decades-- one flag gets taller, so the other country has to get a taller flag, and so on.

Okay, so North Korea and South Korea competed as different teams, yeah, but so do the US and Puerto Rico. There's only so much you can ask at once.

The Olympic motto is “Citius – Altius – Fortius.” Swifter. Faster. Stronger.

Maybe someday we'll all get there.

Korean Flag

Sources: Nelson Mandela quoted by Michael Payne in Olympic Tournaround, (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006).
Olympic Charter, IOC, in force from 7 July 2007.