Olympic Fever

Yesterday the City of Chicago held a rally to celebrate moving on to the final phase of bidding for the 2016 Games. A lot of dignitaries spoke–people involved on the bid team, Mayor Daley, Rep. Rahm Emmanuel, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and a big surprise: Barack Obama.

Mayor Daley gave an immensely passionate speech–he really wants these Games–about when you travel around the world, you come home and say, “God bless America.” He really emphasized our country’s diversity and Chicago’s diversity (didn’t hurt that the rally happened to coincide with the city’s Sister Cities festival), and he talked about how Chicago would be a great place to have these Games that thrive on diversity.

Then Obama took the stage. I’ve never seen him in person, but it was like being at a rock concert: People went nuts. His home happens to be a couple of blocks from Washington Park, the proposed site of the Olympic stadium. He’s all for the Games.

The new logo went on display–it can now display the Olympic rings and the words “Candidate City.”

You can see some pics here .

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