Personally, I hope Brazil wins the Olympic Games hosting bid:
Brazil Cites Rio's Poor in Bid to Host Olympics
By MATTHEW FUTTERMAN
In an effort to bolster Brazil's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took an unusual approach. Speaking to reporters in New York, the populist president made an emotional appeal to have the Games in Rio de Janeiro so the event can be experienced by his country's poor.
"I believe the Olympic Games are not only a privilege for rich countries," he said.
The International Olympic Committee meets next week to select the 2016 host city at a meeting in Copenhagen.
The campaigns by the four bid cities, Rio, Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid, are heating up. Mr. da Silva has already approved some $240 billion in funding for the Games and offered the federal government's financial guarantee to cover shortfalls in the organizing committee's budget. That, combined with his argument that South America deserves an opportunity to host the event, makes Brazil a formidable foe.
This month, Brazil's bid received high praise in an IOC report on the technical qualities of all of the candidates' proposals, including transportation, financing, security and the competition venues.
"Are the Olympic Games a sports event where only rich countries have the right, or is it another thing?" Mr. da Silva said. "It can't be a European or an American Olympic Games. It has to be a world Olympic Games."
Brazil Cites Rio's Poor in Bid to Host Olympics - WSJ.com
