Chicago's Olympic loss is a gain for London 2012

Chicago's loss in the race for the 2016 Summer Olympics has turned into a gain for the London 2012 organizing committee.

That's because Doug Arnot is going to work as director of games operations of the London Summer Games.

Arnot was director of sport, venues and Games operations for Chicago 2016. His star did not fall when Chicago's burned out in the first round of the Oct. 2 voting that made Rio de Janeiro the 2016 Olympic host city.

During Chicago's final presentation, Arnot began and ended by speaking French (the only Chicago presenter to deliver a sentence in anything but English), therein recognizing and honoring the idea that French is one of the two official languages of the Olympic movement.  Such a gesture was, of course, too little, too late for a bid that foundered at least partly because of the United States Olympic Committee's inability to communicate, through either the words or actions of its leadership, a real desire to be part of the Olympic world as more than an occasional Games host.

Arnot went to Chicago 2016 after resigning as the chief executive of USA Rugby. (Coincidentally, rugby was voted onto the 2016 Olympic program a week after the host city selection.). He had been managing director of operations for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games and managing director of venues for the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games. He has worked on eight Olympics as a consultant or organizing committee staffer.

Arnot, an avid cyclist, is part of a group of Olympic nomads that go from Games to Games, bid to bid, passing on their knowledge. If Chicago had won, Arnot would have been in line for a top organizing committee position, perhaps even chief operating officer.  

It figured Arnot wouldn't be out of Olympic work for long.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Doug Arnot addresses the International Olympic Committee this month during Chicago's final presentation before the vote for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Credit: Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune

Golf and rugby to be among sports at 2016 Olympics

Imagine what a golf course in Rio de Janeiro would look like...

Lush rainforest grass surrounded by cascading waterfalls and singing vibrant-hued toucans? The world's best golfers will find out in 2016. 

The International Olympic Committee voted today to bring golf to the 2016 Olympic games for the first time in more than a century.

The IOC is also permitting rugby to make its first appearance at the Olympics since 1924. Rugby, which was voted in 81-8 with one abstention, received less resistance than golf, which was voted in 63-27 with two abstentions.

Some IOC members were hesitant to vote for golf due to the high costs associated with the sport, potential accessibility issues, and the fact that some clubs exclude women members, according to the Associated Press.

Tiger Woods, however, is reportedly thrilled, indicating in a taped message that he would participate in the 2016 Olympics if golf were approved.

"There are millions of young golfers worldwide who would be proud to represent their country," Woods told reporters from the Presidents Cup in San Francisco. "It would be an honor for anyone who plays this game to become an Olympian."

-- Melissa Rohlin

U.S. Olympic Committee chaos: the whole story

The top two officials of the U.S. Olympic Committee, acting chief executive Stephanie Streeter and board chairman Larry Probst, took actions Wednesday that were tantamount to an admission the USOC had failed Chicago in its bid to be host of the 2016 Olympics.

But even Streeter’s announcement she would not seek the job on a permanent basis and Probst’s decision to turn his volunteer position into a full-time commitment fell short of satisfying their critics.

Leaders of 46 national sports federations, known as NGBs, who are directly involved in preparing Olympic athletes, gave a collective vote of no-confidence in both Streeter and Probst and called for both to resign immediately.

Streeter is to stay as acting CEO through a search process Probst said should be complete by the end of the first quarter of 2010. Before the NGB statement was issued, Probst said he had no plans to resign.

NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol and NGB Council chair Skip Gilbert decried the idea that Streeter, acting CEO since March 5, would stay in her position during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

What the U.S. Olympic Committee would rather keep silent

The United States Olympic Committee prefers the sounds of silence.

Here is what -- or hear what -- it isn't saying:

-- There is an open spot on the U.S. Olympic Committee board of directors -- the independent director position Stephanie Streeter belatedly vacated after becoming acting USOC chief executive in March.

I have learned the favorite to fill it is Robert Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division.

Why might his addition to the board be significant?

Like Streeter and other board members, he has ties to Stanford University. Streeter and board member Jair Lynch received undergraduate degrees from Stanford; board member Bob Bowlsby is the Stanford director of athletics; and Bach got his MBA from Stanford.

And Bach works in the same general area (hardware and software for entertainment) as did USOC Chairman Larry Probst, the retired chief executive of video games giant Electronic Arts. To my question of whether he and Bach had a professional relationship, Probst replied (somewhat obliquely) Tuesday by e-mail: "Part of his [Bach's] responsibility is the Xbox business and Electronic Arts develops software products for the Xbox platform.''

And what might that mean?

Rio de Janeiro to host 2016 Olympics

After eliminating Chicago in the first round of voting, International Olympic Committee members have selected Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as the site of 2016 Summer Games.

This will be the first time the Olympics will be held in South America.

More details coming later here at our Olympics blog and at latimes.com/sports.

-- Houston Mitchell

Photo: A crowd celebrates at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janiero following Friday's official announcement that the city will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Credit: Andrlei Almeida / AFP/Getty Images

Chicago ousted in first vote for 2016 Olympics

Chicago was eliminated in the first round of International Olympic Committee voting, and Tokyo was eliminated in the second round, leaving Rio de Janeiro and Madrid  in the running for the 2016 Summer Games.

There were 95 votes in the first round because two members, NHL player Saku Koivu of Finland (currently in preseason training with his new team, the Anaheim Ducks) and Alpha Diallo of Guinea could not make it to Copenhagen. One of the 95 voters did not vote in the first round. No vote totals were available.

Others not voting in the first round included the seven members from the countries with candidates (two each from the U.S., Japan and Brazil; one from Spain); Kun Hee Lee of South Korea, who has been suspended pending judicial action involving him in South Korea; and IOC President Jacques Rogge, who does not vote.

As soon as a city is eliminated, members from that country can vote.

Under IOC rules, in case of a tie during a round when only two candidates remain, the IOC president can vote or ask the executive board to break it. There is a runoff in case of a tie between the two lowest vote-getters in an earlier round.

Officials pick out clear plastic balls from a bowl filled with such balls, each with a number, and assign a number to each city for voting purposes. Voting is secret and done electronically. The numbers were No. 8 for Tokyo, No. 9 for Madrid, No. 4 for Chicago and No. 7 for Rio.

-- Kathy Bergen and Philip Hersh

Image: Chicago's 2016 Olympic candidate logo. Credit: Associated Press

Obama will join Olympic bid team in Denmark

That would be First Lady Michelle Obama, not President Obama, signing on for next month's trip to Denmark to help Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.

"We are very pleased to confirm that First Lady Michelle Obama will be a lead member of the Official Chicago 2016 Delegation for the upcoming International Olympic Committee Session in Copenhagen, Denmark," said Patrick Ryan, Chicago 2016's chairman and CEO.

"As a lifelong Chicagoan, the First Lady is uniquely qualified to share with members of the IOC the passion and enthusiasm of our city for sport and the Olympic and Paralympic movement."

Just a few words of advice for the bid team. Don't make fun of the food of the competing countries, as strange as it may sound.

Why? Jacques Chirac, then the French president, in 2005 jokingly ripped British food on the eve of the vote for the 2012 Summer Games, reportedly saying: "You can't trust people who cook as badly as that."

His comments pulled him into a media firestorm and actually became an issue for several days. And that was before the days of Twitter.

So Chicagoans  -- hands off the culinary efforts of Madrid and Toyko. Kind of hard to diss tapas and miso soup, though.

-- Lisa Dillman

How many medals will U.S. win at Vancouver? 'A lot'

CHICAGO -- Way to go out on a limb, U.S. Olympic Committee!

The USOC on Thursday kicked off its pre-Olympic media summit, in which prospective Vancouver Olympians meet the media for photos, interviews, etc.

Its opening event was a USOC leadership press conference in which the leaders were asked to predict how many medals Team USA will take home from the Vancouver Winter Games in February.

At least they were consistent in their evasiveness.

"A lot," said Mike Plant, chef de mission for the U.S. team.

"We're not going to make a prediction on medal counts," said Mike English, chief of sport performance for the USOC. "We're on track. We're going to be very competitive."

U.S. athletes won 25 medals at the last Winter Games at Turin in 2006, nine gold, nine silver and seven bronze. That ranked second in the unofficial medals table behind Germany, which won 11 gold, 12 silver and six bronze.

Crime more than 'public safety challenges' for Rio 2016 bid

 

A police officer escorts a man shielding a child and two other civilians trying to reach safety after police intervened in an April 2007 gun battle between drug traffickers in the Morro da Mineira shantytown of Rio de Janeiro, where 13 people died. Two similar incidents occurred in Rio this week. Photo credit:  Ricardo Moraes / Associated Press)

About 24 hours before the International Olympic Committee's release on Wednesday of its evaluation commission report on the four finalists to host the 2016 Summer Games, a shootout between police and robbers described as drug traffickers forced the authorities to shut down a main artery near Rio de Janeiro's international airport for five to 15 minutes until gunfire stopped, depending on which newspaper report you read.

One major newspaper, O Globo, (the story linked is in Portuguese) said many motorists were forced to hide behind their cars or try to flee by making U-turns into oncoming traffic. The newspaper also said the suspects tried to throw a grenade at the police.

A day after the IOC evaluators' report euphemistically called crime in Rio "public safety challenges" that the city has addressed in a way "already showing positive results," the newspaper Folha reported that a gun battle between police SWAT teams cracking down on drug traffickers in a shantytown (favela) on Rio's south side led to the closing of three schools and two child care centers as a safety measure.

Such shootouts, involving either the police and criminals, or rival drug gangs fighting each other in the favelas, are not uncommon in Rio. (For proof, put the words "tiroteio" and "Rio" into the search mechanisms of either Google or YouTube.)

USOC boss shoots down would-be vultures circling Chicago bid

The U.S. Olympic Committee took a potshot Monday at the cities circling Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid like vultures.

Stephanie Streeter, the USOC's acting chief executive, issued a "Statement of USOC Commitment to Chicago 2016.''

That was prompted by recent stories, which drew attention on some Olympic news sites, suggesting Tulsa, Okla.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Minneapolis; Detroit and Birmingham, Ala., are thinking about bids for the 2020 Summer Games. Such putative bids, preposterous at face value (The Tulsa Olympics?  Riiight...), would be out of the question if Chicago was selected the 2016 host on Oct. 2.

Last winter, the USOC had to tamp down interest in Denver for a 2018 Winter Olympic bid, which also seemingly depended on Chicago's failure. Former USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said in March: "All our attention is focused on Chicago and supporting its bid.''

(As it turns out, a 2018 winter bid would have been impossible for a U.S. city, because the IOC has set an Oct. 15 deadline for national Olympic committees to submit the name of a candidate, and the USOC could not be evaluating winter bids while working for Chicago's.)