`The city of Atlanta, almost indifferent to Olympic sports until the last 15 months, has earned the right to be United States bid city for the 1996 Summer Games."
I wrote that April 29, 1988, when the United States Olympic Committee chose Atlanta over Minneapolis-St. Paul as the U.S. candidate for what the story said "will almost certainly be a futile attempt to bring the Games back to the U.S. only 12 years after they were in Los Angeles."
That assessment reflected the opinion of International Olympic Committee member Anita DeFrantz of Los Angeles, who said, "There will definitely be wide resistance to allow us the privilege of another Games so soon."
Two years later Atlanta was chosen 1996 host over Athens, Melbourne and Toronto.
Chicago's 2016 bid is in a similar situation, in terms of both timing and history of involvement in Olympic sports.
Only 20 years will have passed since the Atlanta Games, a period during which there will have been two Winter Games in North America, one in the U.S.
Yet the USOC is convinced that is enough time for the United States to have another Summer Games.
"We were told 2012 was too soon," said Bob Ctvrtlik, USOC vice president for international relations, citing a reason why New York's 2012 bid was a loser. "We are not hearing that now."
As first reported in Wednesday's Tribune, the Chicago 2016 bid committee has begun trying to make up for lost time in commitment to Olympic and international sports with the creation of World Sport Chicago.
A Feb. 6 men's freestyle wrestling meet at Northwestern between the United States and Russia will be the kickoff event for the new organization, hoping to enhance Chicago's Olympic bid by bringing events in Olympic sports to the city.
The Chicago 2016 bid committee formally introduced World Sport Chicago and its executive director, 1992 Olympic triple jump champion Mike Conley, at a Wednesday news conference.
"Many Chicagoans are passionate about amateur and international sport, and World Sport Chicago will display this passion for all to see," Mayor Richard M. Daley said at the news conference. "This organization demonstrates the city's commitment to sports and the Olympic movement will continue well after 2016."
The first event also will include a women's wrestling exhibition against Canada and a Greco-Roman wrestling exhibition against China.
Illinois natives Lindsey Durlacher (Buffalo Grove) and Mary Kelly (Mahomet) are scheduled to compete. Durlacher was a 2006 Greco-Roman world bronze medalist and Kelly a 2006 world team member.
The competition will be preceded by a wrestling clinic for Chicago-area middle schoolers. Such clinics are to be a major part of World Sport Chicago's mandate. It also plans to have summer camps at which local and international athletes will train together.
The mayor and Chicago 2016 Chairman Patrick Ryan rejected suggestions that World Sport Chicago was only an 11th-hour attempt to link the city to Olympic sports just to win the Games.
Both insisted the privately funded organization would be permanent, even if the USOC decides April 14 to pick Los Angeles (host for two Olympics and hundreds of related events) in the domestic competition for the Games.
World Sport Chicago's 2007 budget, $500,000, will come from the Chicago bid committee. If Chicago were eliminated in April, future funding likely would come from $20 million raised for the international phase of the 2016 competition.
Could there be no international phase? An NBCSports.com story noted that the USOC's Tuesday announcement it was moving ahead did not say "will bid" for 2016 but "intends to" bid.
"We are committed to going forward," Ctvrtlik said Wednesday. "But we do hold out the possibility of international events making it impossible for us."
Events that might force such a decision would be a major terrorist attack or war of a larger dimension than the current situation in Iraq.
The other thing that would preclude a U.S. bid is having the plans of both finalists unravel. The USOC has until Sept. 15 to submit the bid to the International Olympic Committee.
