As you probably know, the final selection will be made by the 115 voting members of the IOC membership on 2 October 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Candidate Cities are
Chicago, U.S.A.
Madrid, Spain
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Tokyo, Japan
Post your wish, write your guess!
I’m hoping for Madrid! I will be in Europe by then for sure and I would love to go :D. It’s a shame we’ll never be able to host he Olympics down here.
I don’t have any particular preference. If I must make a choice, I’d say Rio de Janeiro, mainly because Brazil is such a big country and so it would be nice if it’s given the chance to host a major sporting event.
Incidentally, I read today that Chicago estimates that hosting the Olympics will cost the city $4.8 billion. To me, this seems to be an extraordinarily low amount. After some googling, I’ve managed to come up with following figures:
Athens 2004: budget $1.6 billion, actual $16 billion
Beijing 2008: budget $1.6 billion, actual $40 billion
London 2012: budget $8 billion, current estimate $19 billion
Chicago justifies the low figure by saying that they already have the infrastructure for hosting the Olympics and so would not require major capital investments like other host cities. I don’t know how true this is. Still, it’s difficult for me to believe that, if Chicago is indeed chosen to host the Olympics, it would be possible for the city to spend anything less than $15 billion on the games.
The Olympics is/are(?) always political. My guess is Chicago, but I’m not making any predictions.
I can’t choose… On the one hand I am learning Japanese and like sports. So, if Tokyo wins, I will have an opportunity to read more about sports in Japanese :)))
On the other hand I want to visit Japan one day. But Japan is a very expensive country, and if Tokyo hosts Olympics, I think prices will rise even more…
I don’t know am I against Tokyo or for Tokyo :)))
I have not started to learn Japanese, which won’t be for some time, but I would like to see it in Tokyo or Chicago. Tokyo because I have always wanted to go to Japan and Chicago because the city is like a two hour drive from my place so I think that that would be really cool to go see them.
If it’s any consolation Nathan, the Olympics are in Vancouver and I’m not going. Even if they close the schools to make the time available, with tickets at close to a thousand bucks and only a few thousand are available, it’s not much of a public event. I hope it ends up somewhere where all the infrastructure is useful for the long haul and affordable in the short term! Montreal is still paying for the Olympics from when, 1974?
Nevertheless, go Rio, go! It would be nice to see it in the Southern Hemisphere.
Is it just me or are the Olympics incredibly boring? I think so… Normally one country in any one sport has an incredible advantage… The US in swimming the …who was it? the Jamaicans in running? (I guess hockey has always been good) … but it’s mostly boring… The only country based sporting event that’s any good is the soccer world cup… the World Baseball Classic has been good too but it’s in it’s infancy and only relevant to some Asians and Latin Americans (ironically Americans don’t really care about it, maybe it’s because we don’t win it 
) …
I have no hesitation in saying that I think it would be fairest to give the games to Rio. Brazil is a big country and South America has never had the Olympics. US, Japan and Spain have all had them.
Rio de Janeiro was selected as a host city of 2016 Olympic! To Brazilian people, congratulation on this good news! This will be a first Olympic in South America. As Steve says it’s fair. They need a lot of money and work from now to 2016, I believe Brazil will do it. I can’t wait to watch the carnival-like closing ceremony on TV!
It’s time to start to learn Portuguese in LingQ, everyone!
I stand corrected! I’m surprised Brazil got the games, but I think it’s great! I think Brazil deserves a shot to “show off” a little bit.
Isn’t Brazil’s winter our summer and vice versa? What kind of weather will the outdoor sports be played in?
I didn’t think about that. Apparently (as in, according to wikipedia), Brazil’s winter and summer are backwards (to us), but that doesn’t say much about temperature. The coolest month is July, with an average high of 77. That’s beautiful Olympics weather, if you ask me.
Rio has a tropical climate, so even in their winter it is stilll warm and sunny. Think Hawaii. People go there for vacation even in wintertime.
I think it’s great that Rio won the olympics. As my friend from Rio said, it’s the “cidade de esporte mundial…” they really love their sports there!
“It’s time to start to learn Portuguese in LingQ, everyone! [2]”