Rio to host the 2016 Olympics

The country's president was blunt. "It is", Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said, "Brazil's time."And the International Olympic Committee agreed with him.Snubbing Chicago on a chilly Danish evening of high drama, the IOC sent the 2016 Olympics to Rio, Brazil's bustling fun-loving but crime-ridden city of beaches and mountains, romance and slums.

Close to half of the IOC's 106 members are Europeans.On Rio's Copacabana beach, the party headed into the night.Rio spoke to IOC members'consciences: the city argued that it was simply unfair that South America has never hosted the games, while Europe, Asia and North America have done so repeatedly.It is a time to address this imbalance,Silva told the IOC before it delivered its verdict. It is time to light the Olympic cauldron in a tropical country.

The win was decisive: Rio beat Madrid by 66 votes to 32. Chicago got just 18 votes in the first round, with Tokyo squeezing into the second round with 22. Madrid was leading after the first round with 28 votes, while Rio had 26

In the second round, Tokyo was eliminated with just 20 votes. Madrid got 29, qualifying it for the final round face-off with Rio, which by then already had a strong lead with 46 votes. Beating three rich, more developed nations that had all previously held the games represented a giant, morale-boosting coup for Brazil, an emerging nation bounding up the ranks of the worldâ's biggest economies but which still has millions of people living in poverty.

Like a football team before a big final, Rio's bid leaders and Silva held hands and had a silent prayer before walking out to deliver a flawless and impassioned presentation to the IOC. A bid official said Silva's last words of encouragement were "stay calm, and stick with our plan".

Brazil's central bank governor reeled off some impressive statistics about an economy predicted to be the world's fifth largest by 2016.

The state governor pledged that taxes would not be raised to fund the games and played down the concerns about safety. Computer-generated bird's eye images of how venues will spread across the city, with sailing in the shadow of Sugar Loaf mountain and volleyball on Copacabana, provided the wow factor.And Silva delivered the knockout.Among the top 10 economies of the world, Brazil is the only country that has not hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games,he said.

For the Olympic movement, it will be an opportunity to feel the warmth of our people, the exuberance of our culture, the sun of our joy and it will also be a chance to send a powerful message to the whole world: The Olympic Games belong to all peoples, to all continents and to all humanity.Silva, a bearded former union leader, disappeared into a huge group hug with the joyous Rio team after it was announced that the city had won.

Football great Pele had tears in his eyes. Silva wept into a white handkerchief at a post-victory news conference.

Brazil will now hold the world's two biggest sporting events in the space of just two years: in 2014, it is organizing the World Cup. There was absolutely no flaw in the bid. Now, Africa and Antarctica are the only continents never to have been awarded an Olympics.We have sent out a message that we want to go global, IOC member Gerhard Heiberg said. And Rio,well, let's samba!

Courtesy Associated Press

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