No time for jetlag, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey make Olympic splash
First lady, Oprah hit ground running
COPENHAGEN — With no time for jetlag, First Lady Michelle Obama and talk show diva Oprah Winfrey made a public splash Wednesday after arriving in Denmark to campaign for Chicago’s Olympic bid.
These are the crucial, final 24 hours for the four bid cities to lobby members of the International Olympic Committee, gathered here to select a host city for the 2016 Games on Friday.
(AP)
By all accounts this is a tight race and the bid cities are rolling out their political muscle and star power to win the votes of the 100-plus member IOC. That includes Winfrey, Mrs. Obama and, on Friday, President Obama.
“We’re not taking anything for granted,” Michelle Obama told reporters at the Marriott in Copenhagen, the official IOC hotel. “So, I’m going to talk to some voters.”
Chicago 2016 has a two-room suite at the Marriott, and the First Lady has a lengthy schedule of one-on-one meetings there with IOC members that began Wednesday and continues today.
Pictures of Chicago and its planned venues decorate the suite, with one wall covered by a photo of the lakefront — home to most of the venues should Chicago strike Olympic gold.
Heads of state and one-time athletes from competing cities Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo are also jockeying for IOC votes.
But across Copenhagen Wednesday, it was the “O” show.
A Danish rock music station repeatedly declared that Mrs. “Obama has landed” in Copenhagen. Meanwhile, some 200 fans gathered behind police tape outside an evening dinner for Chicago’s bid in the Danish capital city to get a glimpse of Winfrey. They got that and more as the talk show diva told clapping and cheering fans: “I love your city.”
Winfrey also talked about what she’s trying to convey to IOC members.
“I love this city, because this city has been so great to me and I know what this city has to offer,” Winfrey said. “My message is really about my love for Chicago and ... the spirit that we know the games will bring and the spirit that the people of Chicago will bring to the Games.”
Inside the “welcome dinner” for supporters of Chicago’s bid, Mrs. Obama talked like a true politician.
“As Barack and I have looked at this, this is like a campaign,” Mrs. Obama told some 300 Olympians and other Chicagoans gathered in downtown Copenhagen.
“Just like Iowa,” she said. “You got to — and the international community may not understand that, but Iowa is like a caucus, and you can’t take any vote for granted. Nobody makes the decision until they’re sitting there.”
And, perhaps in a pre-cursor to Friday’s formal pitch before the IOC, Mrs. Obama talked about what hosting the Olympics in Chicago might mean for local children living in poverty.
“I just think, wouldn’t it be great if that kind of spirit was happening right down the street in our community? Just think of that. Kids and communities across the city, in Austin, kids who grew up in Cabrini, kids who live so far from the city. Now just imagine if all of that was happening right in their own backyard. That’s what I think about.”
“It does something to a kid when they can feel that energy and power up close and personal. And for some kids in our communities and our city, around the nation, around the world, they can never dream of being that close to such power and opportunity. So that’s what excites me most about bringing the Games to Chicago.”
Contributing: AP