Just coming through the wire... Rio was just chosen as the site for the 2016 Olympics, beating out runner-up Madrid along with Tokyo and Chicago. The latter was voted off in the first-round.

 

This will be the first Olympiad to be held in the continent of South America.

Duran Duran will be happy

Good for Brazil.

Congrats to Rio and Brasil.... but Chicago and the US got ripped. Chicago should have been one of the final two cities.

My understanding is that Rio has a lot of work to do before the Games arrive. I know they have some pretty infamous slums outside of the city, for one thing. I also don't know if they have the facilities currently standing to host the various events.

My understanding is that Rio has a lot of work to do before the Games arrive. I know they have some pretty infamous slums outside of the city, for one thing. I also don't know if they have the facilities currently standing to host the various events.

 

 

I know facilities such as stadiums etc will differ but Brazil will be hosting the football World Cup in 2014 so the infrastructure will be in place and much improved than what is currently there which should definately help for the Olympics.

Having the 2014 World Cup immensely helped Rio. Without that, I have a feeling Chicago gets it. But the logic is they must be ready for the World Cup to be ready for the Olympics. And as passionate as Brazil is for football, they wouldn't dare let down FIFA.

As others have said having the 2014 WC is a major plus. Also, they hosted the 2007 PanAmerican games which was a starting point in a lot of new infrastructure.

 

They will be in much better shape than say South Africa is for WC 2010 and probably a lot better than all the other 2016 host cities (except for Spain who already had over 70% of facilities built).

 

I still think it would of been a great waste of money for Chicago. Every facility was going to be temporary to spend over 4 billion on all temporary facilities to take them down makes little sense to me.