IOC plotted against Obama

obama1The International Olympic Committee had made its decision to award the 2016 Olympic Games to Rio de Janeiro long before the much publicised visit by US president Barrack Obama.

Obama’s Copenhagen sojourn in support of Chicago’s bid was doomed to failure after an IOC group had already made up its mind to reject the bid, according to news source Politiken.

Although touted as the firm favourite, Chicago was quickly ousted from voting contention in what was believed to be a backlash against the American Olympic Committee’s apparent greed: the United States has already hosted the Olympics on four occasions, twice as many as any other country.

According to Politiken, the IOC members’ co-ordinated campaign to reject the Chicago bid centred on the American Olympic Committee’s permanent contract which would see it benefit from a DKK 2.3 billion grant over the next four years by the IOC. The grant is a remnant of the 1980s where the then flush US committee provided a sizeable loan at a time when the IOC was in financial trouble. In the years since the IOC has become an increasingly powerful monetary organisation which has been to the benefit of the American Olympic Committee due to the commission it receives.

The issue was compounded after the refusal by the American organisation to give DKK 28 million out of an increase of close to DKK 130 million from the last four-year period to poor or developing IOC nations, sparking an anti-US movement within IOC ranks.

Politiken believes this was well-known to the American Olympic Committee who strangely kept the news quiet from Obama and Chicago.

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