Rio de Janeiro wins summer Olympics 2016 bid

The second largest city in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, will host the Summer Olympics in 2016. This is the first time the Olympics will take place in South America.

The results of voting of the International Olympic Committee were announced by the IOC’s president, Jacques Rogge. Rio faced competition from Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo. Rio argued that it was simply unfair that South America has never hosted the games, while Europe, Asia and North America have done so repeatedly.

All cities bidding for the Olympic Games spent substantial time and effort just to apply for hosting this major sports event. Teams representing the four countries and cities participating in the race made their final presentations on Friday in the Danish capital of Copenhagen.

Chicago was beaten out of the race in the first round of voting, despite the fact that from the beginning Tokyo was seen as the least likely to succeed. Tokyo’s “heartfelt wish” failed in the second round. The Spanish capital was the last city eliminated, leaving Rio as the winner.

Dmitry Chernyshenko from the Sochi 2014 organizing committee believes the way Rio dealt with concerns over security had a major impact in helping it win the bid.