Not So Fast

Tomorrow marks a monumental day in American history, with Barack Obama being sworn in as the first African-American President of the United States. Along with that comes the inevitable specualtion as to his influence (or lack of it) on Chicago's bid.

I will go out on a limb and say what no other Olympic writer dares to do: the bid is dead as a doornail and any so-called "influence" is just that-perceived. Frankly, Barack has a lot more important things to fix. The economy for one. In the grand scheme of things, the Olympic bid in reality should be low on his list of priorities. Sure, he's from Chicago. It didn't take long for the lemmings to jump on the bandwagon and assume that since he is from that area, he automatically supports the bid.

Barack has said that restoring America's standing in the world is one of his main priorities. It's going to take years to undo the damage of the Bush administration. In fact, his influence could possibly do more harm than good. Chicago needs all the friends it can get. Especially in the media, since they seemed to have done well at one thing: alienating those influential people who can make or break your bid or royally ticking off those folks who are six-degrees-of-separation from the major players that will ultimately make that final decision.

It will be a very interesting time in Copenhagen. Nothing is ever certain in the Olympic world. Assuming you have it in the bag is a dangerous path to walk down. And at the end of that path may be some very rough and tough questioning from those same media members you pissed off earlier in your bid.

Change is coming. Possibly from some of the IOC voting members who think another bid has more to offer-as well as more cooperation from all sectors of the sport world.

A slice of humble pie-please.

Ten Olympic New Year's Resolutions (in no particular order)

1. New IOC President. We need fresh blood and Dr. Rogge just isn't cutting it. He's decided to seek another term. Please don't-we've had enough.

2. People who are-shouldn't. There are some folks who just shouldn't be in the Olympic media business. You know who you are. Do us all a favor and get out-or retire.

3. Stop trashing 1996. There were some of us who worked our butts off for your ungrateful a**. Shut up already!

4. Dump the Youth Olympic Games. Bad idea, bad timing, just bad all around.

5. No to a Munich Winter Olympic bid. People have short memories about what happened last time the Olympics were there.

6. Make good on the promises to make the Olympic Games smaller. That vow was made at the IOC session in Prague in 2003. We're still waiting.

7. Find out how much the IOC has lost in the Bernie Madoff scandal. I am hearing it is close to five million---my gut feeling is that it is much higher.

8. End the Samaranch influence. Can someone teach Juan Antonio how to spell R-E-T-I-R-E-M-E-N-T?

9. Dick Pound for IOC President. Yes, I know what happened the last time he ran, but he's a good guy that the IOC needs to keep around.

10. Get Chicago 2016 to answer some questions. Some really tough questions that they don't like to answer. If you are not hiding anything, why the secrecy?



Happy New Year, and how long is it to Copenhagen? We're preparing and we're so there-and can't wait!