2016 Olympics: Hello, Rio de Janeiro

Yes, it’s true, Chicago is out of the Olympics. It would have been a great opportunity to have the Olympics so close to us. Many Americans were saddened to have Chicago’s bid taken away. The real mystery is why the U.S got booted off in the first round of the voting? This was a big surprise to the many Americans who thought we had a good chance of getting the bid.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) held their 121^st session in Copenhagen, Denmark where they voted on who would host the 2016 games. The committee decided to give Rio de Janeiro the bid and they will host the 2016 Olympics. The other finalists were Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago.

So why did the 2016 Olympics bid given to Rio? Well, there are two main reasons that many people believe that Chicago didn’t get picked. First of all, the U.S is in huge debt with China and, two, we are in two wars right now.

The U.S. is in debt to China and owes them billions of dollars. This would have made it hard for the U.S. to build all the new facilities like a pool and the Olympic village for the games. Along with the other millions of dollars we would have spent preparing for the games. The answer is there isn’t a way we could do it with out getting in more debt or hiking up taxes. Neither of these options Americans wants to be stuck with.

The Olympics are supposed to be about peace and bringing the world together and the U.S. can of sound hypocritical. Sophomore Melinda Mendoza thinks that the United States being involved in to wars goes against what the Olympics are about. “The Olympics are about peace and currently America isn’t displaying peace.”

Math teacher, Dave Dutton, also agrees that the United States didn’t get the bid because of the wars. “It would have been nice to have the Olympics in Chicago, but we would be stuck with debts that we [taxpayers] have to pay.”

Senior Taylor Seten thought the Olympics should have been in Chicago. “Chicago is a great city and this would bring a lot of money in and help the economy.”

So, yes, it’s sad that Chicago didn’t get the bid after all, it would have been great for them to be so close to us. But congratulations to South America on hosting their first Olympics ever!