(ATR) Last week's arrest of Rio 2016 president Carlos Nuzman has drawn increased scrutiny of the International Olympic Committee and the procedures to award the Olympics.
The Chicago Tribune editorial boardrelishes the fact that the 2016 Olympics were not awarded to Chicago – a rare take from an Olympic bid city.
However, in a city well-known for its corruption scandals (detailed at length in the editorial), the fact that Rio de Janeiro needed to be more corrupt to allegedly win the votes of IOC members was a welcome surprise for Chicago.
The editorial board also notes that the perceived snub of the U.S. city's bid by the IOC at the Session in Copenhagen in 2009 was not the Chicago bid team's fault.
With President Barack Obama and superstar personality Oprah Winfrey flying in for the Session, a litany of sports venues at their disposal and an existing and expansive transport system, it seemed Chicago had all the pieces in place to return the Games to the U.S. – they just didn’t have the gold.
Around the Rings contacted Chicago 2016 bid chairman Pat Ryan for his thoughts on the Nuzman corruption scandal but he declined to comment.
Alan Abrahamson of 3 Wire Sports also calls out the IOC and its handling of the Nuzman case. The IOC acted with haste to suspend Nuzman of his honorary IOC membership and suspend the Brazilian Olympic Committee. Yet, as Abrahamson notes, the Russian Olympic Committee is not suspended despite the massive doping and corruption scandal unfolding in the country.
Abrahamson analyzes the duplicity of the actions, noting that it seems likely that Russian athletes could compete at the upcoming PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics next February.
Written by Kevin Nutley
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