The flag of India is one of two hundred that were placed in the snow at Washington Park to mark the boundaries of the Olympic Stadium. (ATR)

Weather, A Minus

Weather was a real minus, as in "minus degrees below freezing", for the duration of the USOC visit. Flurries dusted the USOC team, Mayor Daley and the rest of the official contingent in their brief forays out-of-doors. The site for the Olympic Stadium at Washington Park was covered with snow, the perimeter of the stadium marked with flags from the nations of the world that participate in the Games.

While the weather may have been grey and biting, the USOC team was spared any nasty snow or rain that would have impeded their travels around the city.

Maybe it’s all payback for the commission, which enjoyed abundant sunshine in Los Angeles.

Tour of Chicago Dreams

Unlike Los Angeles, which showed the USOC an array of existing venues including an Olympic Village, Chicago mostly presented sites planned for the Games along the lakefront. The commission met on day one at Soldier Field, where they had a view of the playing field decorated for use as an Olympic football pitch: finals would be played there.

On day two for the venue tour, first stop was the massive McCormick Center, site of the Main Media Center for the bid and 11 sports venues. From the top floor of a next-door Hyatt Hotel, the commission got a look at a truck parking lot south of McCormick that is the site for the Olympic Village, marked with orange balloons.

At McCormick, media had to transfer from one of the new hybrid buses rolled out for the USOC visit when it had a breakdown. But the transfer was smooth, without any lost time.

The delay of the day came at the start of the morning when the USOC team left the hotel nearly 30 minutes later than expected. They were being briefed on the Olympic Stadium plans for Washington Park, on the city’s south side.

The commission only rolled by the park, not emerging from their bus for a walk in the snow to inspect the site.

From there, the group headed to Northerly Island where they stood outside for a quick briefing on the plans for beach volleyball, a perhaps impossible thing to consider in the chilling shoreline wind.

While the USOC tour ended about an hour later than planned, the group spent less than three hours traveling in Chicago with a 40-minute stop at McCormick included.

In Los Angeles, the commission ended about an hour late as well, but it began that day at 7:30, taking nearly five hours to span the distances in that bid.

Mayor Aboard for 2016

For a busy mayor, the Chicago 2016 effort was an agenda-clearing event. Richard Daley, fresh from an overwhelming re-election victory, spent a day and half with the USOC commission. He dined with them at the Art Institute, welcomed them without an overcoat when they arrived at Soldier Field and spent the morning meeting with the group.

Only Oscar-winning Chicago native Jennifer Hudson could pull the mayor away from the USOC briefings. “Dreamgirls” star Hudson had come home for the first time since winning the Oscar last month. The mayor, who met with Hudson under the glittering marquis of the Chicago Theater proclaimed March 6, the first day of the USOC visit, as Jennifer Hudson Day.

The Mayor was back on the bus, literally, for the USOC tour through Chicago Wednesday, spending four hours with the group, including lunch and a closing press conference.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spent an equal amount of time with the commission, but did not participate in the venue tour.

Protestor Speaks Up

A single protestor gave the USOC team a noisy send off as they walked to their bus for the venue tour. Armed with a bullhorn, a burly J.R. Fleming let go with a stream of accusations against Mayor Daley, the Chicago Police and the impact of the Olympics on people in public housing.

Fleming said he was with the Coalition to Protect Public Housing. A Chicago Police officer went chest-to-chest with Fleming to keep him away from the path of the USOC, but he was otherwise allowed to continue his noisy diatribe.

Among his outrageous assertions: “Chicago police will kill Olympians of color”.

Refuting suspicions that an actual s

A solitary protestor used a bullhorn to blare out a stream of ugly charges as the USOC team boarded their bus for a venue tour. (ATR)

In keeping with the understated visit of the USOC to Los Angeles, nary a protestor appeared to cloud the Southern California optimism suffusing the LA bid.

Press Coverage Up Over Los Angeles

There’s a noticeably higher level of interest from the media in Chicago for the Olympics bid story. There were 15 TV cameras at the closing press conference and a couple of dozen journalists from newspapers, radio stations and other publications. Out-of-state coverage was limited to the Los Angeles Times and Around the Rings.

The USOC story was a lead on evening newscasts in Chicago this week and played on the front pages of the two major newspapers.

The story has spread over to the op-ed pages of Chicago newspapers, with the Sun-Times on Wednesday urging in an editorial Wednesday that Chicago should get the Games. But other opinion pieces in the newspapers are calling for caution or even abandoning the bid.

Beth White on the Bid Team

Olympic Games media operations veteran Beth White is now working with the Chicago bid. Should Chicago be the U.S. nominee, White would be involved with planning the Main Media Center for the international bid. White worked in Sydney and Salt Lake City before moving on to Home Depot Training Center in

The Chicago 2016 T-shirt, limited edition. (ATR)

Chicago T Shirts A Hit

Nearly all 2,016 of the limited edition T shirts made for Chicago 2016 have been sold, Andrea Schwartz of Macy’s tells Around the Rings. The long sleeved white tees with the Chicago “Stir the Soul” motto and logo are down to just a few smalls and mediums at the flagship State St. store known better in Chicago lore as Marshall Field. Price is $30; a portion of the proceeds goes to the bid.

Schwarz says hats with the Chicago look should arrive any day and that another t-shirt shipment is expected in a week or so, these to be short-sleeved. She acknowledges the care with which Macy’s needs to order the apparel, given that April 14 is the date for the USOC to decide whether Chicago or Los Angeles moves forward.

On the Menu

The official dinner for the USOC Evaluation Commission was held at the Art Institute of Chicago, while the Los Angeles 2016 dinner was at another trove of art, the Getty Museum.

In Chicago the menu included an arugula salad with fresh blueberries, Bosc pear, young gorgonzola, crisp pecans and a white balsamic vinaigrette. Main course was a beef tenderloin stuffed with roasted garlic, and roasted wild mushroom risotto. Dessert: Chicago-made Eli’s Cheesecake, original and turtle versions.

Coming a week after the Los Angeles 2016 dinner for the USOC, the similarities are striking. At the Getty: pan-seared beef filet was served as a main course, with a very Californian salad of asparagus, pink grapefruit and avocado to open the meal. Perhaps inspiring Chicago, cheesecake was served for dessert, lavender-flavored with mascarpone.

The USOC panel dined under the classic painting by Gustave Caillebotte, “Paris Street; Rainy Day” and was given a gallery tour. The Getty collection was not open for the Los Angeles dinner.

In the Cab

No doubts about Chicago’s polyglot, multi-cultural populace after a few cab rides in the two months ATR has been checking out the bid city. A Nigerian driver was delighted to have a fare who knew about Abuja, while a Francophone driver from Ivory Coast stirred from his cellphone call only when it was time to be paid.

The most recent trip from the city to O’Hare came with a driver who has lived in Chicago for 25 years, but was born and grew up in a village near Ancient Olympia in Greece. No doubts about his opinion on whether the Olympics should come to Chicago. The Greek community in Chicago is said to number about 200,000, one of the largest outside of Greece.

Quote of the Week Nominee

“This is not the city Al Capone ran.” Spoken by Mark Mitten, 2016 staff member and film producer as he introduced a promotional film about the city during a screening for journalists.

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