2016 Summer Olympic Games

Yup, we're coming up on that time when we get to find out which city in the world gets to host the Olympics seven years from now. We here in America are supposedly cheering for Chicago to get the bid. They are, after all, one of four finalists to host the games. After the former capital of the former Soviet nation of Azerbaijan, Baku, the capital of the small, wealthy Arabian country of Qatar, Doha, and the capital of the eastern European country of the Czech Republic, Prague were eliminated after failing to impress the IOC, we're down to four finalists: Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo. Now we here in America are supposed to be supporting our President's home city, of course. President Obama is one of the leading supporters of Chicago's bid. I don't know if I feel that way, though. Though the IOC has no official rotation policy among countries or continents, I feel that such matters need to be taken strongly into account. Let's take a look at the locations of all Olympic Games since 1994.

Year	City	Country	Continent/World Region
1994	Lillehammer	Norway	Europe
1996	Atlanta	United States	North America
1998	Nagano	Japan	Asia
2000	Sydney	Australia	Oceania
2002	Salt Lake City	United States	North America
2004	Athens	Greece	Europe
2006	Turin	Italy	Europe
2008	Beijing	People's Republic of China	Asia
2010	Vancouver	Canada	North America
2012	London	United Kingdom	Europe
2014	Sochi	Russia	Europe

Now, having the Games in Chicago would be nice and all, but I really think it'd be much fairer to give the games to Rio. Both the United States and Japan have each hosted the Games at least once since 1994 (Atlanta '96, Nagano '98, Salt Lake City '02). Spain hasn't hosted since 1992, just earlier than the list was cut off, when the Summer Games were held in 2016. Now, I can see the argument for each country that they deserve the Games again, as the most recent for any candidate nation is Salt Lake City's 2002 Games. However, Brazil has never hosted an Olympic Games. Not only that, but no South American city has every hosted the Games. Geographically, Rio deserves the Games outright. I realize that there are more factors going into the final decision, but I think it would be a win for everyone in Brazil and South America if Rio were to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Just as a side note, I don't think Rio will win. Based on their evaluation ratings, I would say that the most likely winners would be Madrid or Tokyo. My prediction is Tokyo. The winner will be announced on 2 October 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Look for a blog post then.

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