Unfortunately, Chicago’s loss will not be Denver’s gain — at least in 2018 . . . The International Olympic Committee announced that Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Summer Olympics, beating out a final group of cities that also included Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid. The decision came after President Barack Obama flew down to Copenhagen, Denmark, to pitch Chicago’s candidacy personally to Olympic officials Speculation had been rampant that if Chicago failed to land the event, Denver would put together a bid to try to capture the 2018 Winter Olympics. As recently as Oct. 1, Gov. Bill Ritter’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer, told the Durango Herald that there had been conversations for more than a year about the possibility of a bid for those games.
But a spokeswoman for the Colorado Springs-based United States Olympic Committee said shortly after the IOC announcement Friday that the USOC will not submit any bid for the 2018 games because the deadline is just two weeks away, giving it little time to prepare a winnable entry. Did Ritter screw up? Should Denver have pursued this with more passion during these uncertain economic times? |
