November/December 2009

On October 2nd I received an e-mail alert notifying me that Chicago had been officially eliminated as a contender for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Shortly thereafter I learned that Tokyo, then Madrid had been removed as well, leaving Rio as the ultimate choice. Agree or disagree, the reverberations around the globe were immense. With President Obama and Oprah in attendance, the IOC decided on a different path for the 2016 Olympic Games. Chicago, at one time considered the favorite, placed a distant fourth in the balloting. In her article, "The Makings of an Olympic City", Juli Anne Patty explores some of the factors involved in this decision.

A week later, the IOC made another dramatic decision: It decided golf was now finally worthy to be an Olympic sport for the first time since the early 20th century. Based primarily on the global impact of Tiger Woods and the burgeoning international success of players from non-traditional golfing countries (the Masters and the PGA Championship were won by Angel Cabrerra - Argentina and Y.E. Yang - Korea, respectively) the IOC decided to capitalize. In her Site Selection article, Mary Helen Sprecher examines golf facilities and what to look for when choosing a site.