Olympic choice: Chicago or Rio

COPENHAGEN – Rio de Janeiro or Chicago? Risk vs reliable.

For the International Olympic Committee, the biggest decision in choosing the city to host the 2016 Games is what statement it wants to send to the world.

Does it make the bold, transformational choice of Rio, giving the Olympics to South America for the first time? Or does it play it safe and head for the familiar shores of the United States and, perhaps, a more lucrative games?

“Policy wise, the IOC has to decide if we’re ready to go to a new continent,” longtime IOC member Dick Pound said recently. “That’s the biggest paradigm shift. Is the time right?”

Rio certainly thinks so.

The city didn’t even make the finals when it bid for the Olympics in 2004 and 2012. Now, however, Brazil has one of the world’s largest economies and its international stature is growing. South America is also home to 400 million people, bid committee leader Carlos Arthur Nuzman said, a population that could ensure the Olympic movement’s legacy for generations to come.    (AP)