Chicago Mayor Daley Leaves Beijing With Helpful Tips, Impressions
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Daley Talks Up Chicago's Bid For
2016 Olympics While In Beijing |
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley will depart Beijing today, but Chicago 2016 Chair Patrick Ryan and other team members are "staying through the entire Games," according to Kathy Bergen of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Daley and Ryan spent yesterday evening "entertaining a crowd of about 100 members of the press" at the USOC's hospitality center, USA House. It was a night for "talking up the bid and reflecting on lessons learned in Beijing in the early days of the Games." Some of the early impressions of Beijing that "blew them away" were the 100,000-strong legion of volunteers who as a group are "helpful to a fault"; the "designated Olympic-traffic lanes, which ordinary Beijing drivers actually respect and stay out of"; the "sleek new subway lines, with stations that resemble mini-airport terminals and wide-bodied train cars the zip along quietly"; and the "sheer scale of the Olympic venues." Daley and the bid team "met with more than 50 [IOC] members, as well as heads of sports federations, international embassy officials and some royalty, including British Prince Charles' sister, Anne, an Olympian equestrian." USOC VP/Int'l Relations Bob Ctvrtlik said, "We're starting to feel real warmth from IOC members" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 8/12).
SIGN OF THINGS TO COME? A SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS editorial states, "By starting its aggression on the day of the Olympics' opening ceremony, Russia signaled that it cares not a whit about the Games' tradition of trying to inspire peace around the world." The 2014 Games are now scheduled for Sochi, Russia, less than 50 miles from the fighting in Georgia. One of the first U.S. moves "should be to persuade the [IOC] to reconsider its commitment to Sochi" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 8/12).
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