Obama Insulted - Brazil Vindicated

October 2nd is celebrated as Gandhi Jayanti in India, but on this day something very strange happened in Copenhagen. Here at Copenhagen on 2nd Oct, IOC has decided the venue for 31st Olympics (to be held in 2016) to be Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But why do I say this is special. Yes indeed it is special for the people of Brazil. Hearing the results Football great Pele had tears in his eyes. But it’s not the selection but the rejection of so called “big guns” that makes it special. Here is how a newspaper has put it- “Like sweet, sultry samba music, Rio hit all the right notes. Chicago had Barack Obama. Tokyo had $4 billion in the bank. Madrid had powerful friends. But none of that mattered. Rio de Janeiro had the enchanting story — of about 400 million sports-mad people on a giant untapped and vibrant continent yearning, hoping, that the Olympics finally might come to them. And the International Olympic Committee was hooked.”
It’s the loss of Chicago or rather Barack Obama that makes it special. Chicago was the favourite- given the fact that Mr and Mrs Obama had personally come to Copenhagen to persuade IOC members and had spent two days buttering them. But this favouritism was short lived. No one ever expected a first round exit of Chicago. The nature of loss gives a strong presence of an “anti-American” attitude. Nearly half of the IOC’s 106 members are European countries. This represented a defeat of “illusionist” power of America and Obama- who was born up in Chicago.
Brazil will now hold the world’s two biggest sporting events in a space of two years – in 2014 it is hosting Football World Cup. Now among the BRIC countries, India remains the only country not to hold any Olympics ever. Let’s see if India can make it next time.