A Super-Sized Lesson in Hubris and Humility or Why Chicago and the USA Lost in Copenhagen
By Denis Campbell
The Olympic movement and its games are global. The US needs to do more to look beyond its own shores to the rest of the world and join in the global dialogue as an equal partner rather than behave as the schoolyard bully and issue demands as the world’s policeman. They may spend more than any other nation on television advertising, bring an entourage and orgy of coverage that the rest of the world just piggy-backs on for pennies on every dollar but to win Olympic Games in the XXIst century requires humility and substance vs flash.
Atlanta 1996 was an orgy of greed, terrorism and advertising excess. There was no way the Olympic selectors would allow that to happen again. Sydney became the new model: young, fresh and vibrant. Chicago is a great city with great entertainment and restaurants but when its global visuals are slaughterhouses, railroads, Al Capone, da dynasty of da Mayors Daly and Rod Blagojevich, you knew this was going to be a tough fight.
My local bookie (betting parlors are quite legal in the UK) opened a 1st round Chicago loss line because I insisted on it with a “hey, it’s your money” kind of look. No one thought they would be lopped off in the 1st round. The £200 won will buy a nice dinner.
How was I so certain?
It’s not North America’s turn. Yes one could look at past selections and think it was, but that was pre-9/11 and two wars alienated much of the world. That was also pre-global financial meltdown caused by Wall Street’s greed and avarice. That was before the world watched the spectacle of the world’s largest economy fail to insure 50 million of its people while allowing another 50 million to hang in the balance financially for what the rest of the world considers a basic right, good healthcare.
Yes, South America has never hosted an Olympic Games. Yes, if you have rings from 6 continents, how can you enter your second modern Olympic century without ever having hosted the Games on one very large continent? And what a worthy city! Just watch an evening of Brazilian football on BSkyB here in the UK and you’ll see how rabidly and joyously supportive Brazilian fans are of their team and national side in the World Cup.
But these games were lost because Left and Right wing echo chambers of hate are tearing the USA apart. No one abroad recognises this America anymore. FOX News will crow at the failure of the US President to bring home the Olympic Games. Republicans will wring their hands in faux outrage over the cost of the President’s trip to Copenhagen. The Wingnuts will immediately launch fundraising programmes and predict Congressional gains in the midterm elections on the backs of this colossal Obama failure.
And they will all be wrong.
= Chicago lost because the USA is a massive debtor nation trying to host the games in a city rife with corruption and where the blood of its inner city black youth is spilled daily on the streets.
= Chicago lost because more than 90% of its citizens will be unable to afford tickets to those games.
= Chicago lost because it convinced itself the star power alone of President and Mrs. Obama along with Oprah Winfrey was enough to overcome a very weak and off-point presentation.
One only need go back four years to Singapore and examine Lord Sebastian Coe’s strategy of involving and focusing on the youth of South London, their hopes and dreams, the natural humility of the UK and her people… to see that in 2012, these would be dignified and healing games in a time of great wars and strife.
Why did the Olympic Committee shun Paris in 2005 and the USA in 2009? Hubris and arrogance. Both thought the Games were their birthright. Both were shamed and humiliated.
I wish I could say the USA will learn from this lesson and work harder next time. I fear they will instead just become sore losers and bad mouth the selectors, pointing the blame everywhere but at themselves.
Unfortunately my country is so fractured and torn apart at its seams, that it will be a long time before they will be in a position to credibly mount a bid effort again.
And that will be a global loss unless they wake up, admit they are part of the problem, see that protectionism and closing down of borders and markets will continue to hurt them and show them they need to change the dialogue internally to change their perception externally. If only… sigh.