GBModerator Posted October 4, 2016 Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 United States President Barack Obama believes that decisions made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to award host city contracts are “a little bit cooked,” according to his comments made to New York Magazine and published Sunday. The now second-term President who spoke at the final presentation for Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid in 2009 also […] View the full article Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob2012 Posted October 4, 2016 Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 Until Bach's handling of the Russian doping affair I would've said comparisons with FIFA were absurd. In fact, in terms of the bidding process I think such comparisons are not really fair on the IOC (that's more an indictment of FIFA than praise for the IOC btw). One thing: can anyone remember the IOC evaluation scores? Was Chicago rated as objectively the best, as Obama apparently claims? I seem to remember things being quite close between the "traditional" bids in the race, with Madrid technically the best but marked down on some structural aspects, Tokyo doing generally well but concerns about public support, and Chicago scoring highly but worries over financing and some venues. I don't recall even the over-optimistic American media claiming Chicago was objectively the best of the bids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FYI Posted October 4, 2016 Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 Maybe he's getting that confused with "the best American bid ever presented" (at the time), since that I do remember reading. The Final Evaluation Report is never scored, but the preliminary evaluation report ranked Tokyo & Madrid as 1st & 2nd. But considering the the rest of the article, I guess Budapest it is then! lolz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanMUC Posted October 4, 2016 Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 If IOC members can still afford to bear a grudge against a technically fine bid by voting time next year, this may be bad timing. If they rather go to Orbánia or - God forbid this happens! - Lepenville because of this remark, they'll just deserve no better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikarus360 Posted October 4, 2016 Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 We don't even know yet if Lepen will win. Also if Trump manages to wins next month, whoever wins will be the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athensfan Posted October 6, 2016 Report Share Posted October 6, 2016 Well, the IOC isn't FIFA, but it is not a meritocracy. In that respect, I can understand calling it "cooked." The 2016 evaluation report was quite slanted and made it clear that the IOC already favored Rio. For instance, it omitted any mention of crime in Rio and drastically under-represented transportation times. Chicago received negative comments in both those areas. Rio's financing was lauded over Chicago's as well, which seems especially bizarre. The language describing Chicago's bid betrayed the underlying strain between the IOC and the USOC. As soon as Paris entered the race for 2024, we all knew they would win as long as they didn't shoot themselves in the foot. Really, they would have to amputate their own foot in order to lose. That alone shows that the quality of the bid is really not the primary criteria. The IOC's biases are obvious enough for everyone to know how they will vote ahead of time. The voting process seems fair and free of bribery, but it's not about the "best bid" (just ask Almaty). It's about warm feelings and favorites. And in that context I understand Obama's remarks. The timing is unfortunate for LA2024 , but Obama's remarks are really more about his own political legacy and defending himself from detractors than they are about the IOC. The whole 2016 episode was an embarrassment and felt like a major slap in the face to him. If the IOC is not biased, the comments of an outgoing president about disappointing events that happened 7 years ago should not compromise their ability to fairly evaluate the 2024 race. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenchy Posted October 6, 2016 Report Share Posted October 6, 2016 On 04/10/2016 at 8:59 PM, Ikarus360 said: We don't even know yet if Lepen will win. Yes we do. She won't...... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikarus360 Posted October 6, 2016 Report Share Posted October 6, 2016 A lot of people are falling for the "Inmigrants and every single muslim is bad" and Altright meme these days, though, so I would still be careful. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CITYofDREAMS Posted October 7, 2016 Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 Maybe Obama doesn't want the Olympics in LA... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanMUC Posted October 7, 2016 Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 32 minutes ago, CITYofDREAMS said: Maybe Obama doesn't want the Olympics in LA... Or maybe he just doesn't give a damn about the IOC's "feelings" and tells it like it is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nacre Posted October 7, 2016 Report Share Posted October 7, 2016 1 hour ago, CITYofDREAMS said: Maybe Obama doesn't want the Olympics in LA... I think there are two problems with bringing the Olympics to the USA. First, the USA has hosted the Olympics many times before, so there is not much feeling that we need to do it again for the sake of national pride or prestige. The whole world already knows both Los Angeles and the USA very well. Second, the distance is too great for people to feel that it matters to their local community unless they happen to live in the region that hosts the games. Vancouver 2010 felt like a local event to me, but Salt Lake City did not, as I was over 1,000 km away from it. That's roughly the distance from London to Turin. I think it would be more accurate to say that people from Hawaii and Chicago don't care about the Olympics in Los Angeles as much as people in Nantes would care about the Olympics in Paris or people in Debrecen want Budapest to win. Few Americans are really opposed to Los Angeles hosting another Olympic Games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympic Fan Darcy Posted October 9, 2016 Report Share Posted October 9, 2016 On 10/5/2016 at 0:54 AM, Rob. said: Until Bach's handling of the Russian doping affair I would've said comparisons with FIFA were absurd. In fact, in terms of the bidding process I think such comparisons are not really fair on the IOC (that's more an indictment of FIFA than praise for the IOC btw). One thing: can anyone remember the IOC evaluation scores? Was Chicago rated as objectively the best, as Obama apparently claims? I seem to remember things being quite close between the "traditional" bids in the race, with Madrid technically the best but marked down on some structural aspects, Tokyo doing generally well but concerns about public support, and Chicago scoring highly but worries over financing and some venues. I don't recall even the over-optimistic American media claiming Chicago was objectively the best of the bids. Chicago scored a 7.0 I believe. Tokyo and Madrid were far higher but Chicago was pretty solid. Remembering that Rio scored 6.4 (lower than Doha at 6.9) and got put through whilst Doha was understandably left off the shortlist. Gamesbids and ATR had Rio as the winner but both had Chicago a very close 2nd. Gamesbids had Tokyo 3rd and Madrid 4th whilst ATR had them both tied. Whilst they got Rio correct, they didn't expect the early loss of Chicago and for Madrid to have a great showing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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