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*** 2016 Olympics Rio BMX Track ***

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (AP) -- 10/03/2009
Rio team still buzzing over 2016 Olympic win.


Photo - In this computer generated photo illustration
released by Comite Rio 2016, the Olympic BMX Center
is shown. The 2016 Olympics are going to Rio de Janeiro,
putting the games in South America for the first time.

The injustice has been corrected - and Rio de Janeiro
has a new map to prove it.

To loud "aahhs" and applause from the audience, the
team that led the Brazilian city's winning bid to host the
2016 Olympics on Saturday unveiled a new map of the
world to make clear that South America, finally, is getting
the games.

In trying to convince the International Olympic Committee
to pick Rio, the city's bid team had shown the committee's
members a map showing that North America had held 12
games, Europe 30, Asia five and Oceania two.

They left South America blank - to hammer home the
fact that the continent had not staged the games.

On Friday, the IOC awarded the Olympics to Rio over Madrid
after the final round of voting, so the city's new map shows
one on South America.

"This is a new map, a historic map of the IOC's historic
decision," Carlos Nuzman, who led Rio's bid and is also
an IOC member, said when it was displayed for the first
time.

Nuzman said a difference between Rio and the defeated
bidding cities - Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago - was having
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on its side.

Chicago had President Barack Obama, Madrid was backed
by the King of Spain and Japan's new prime minister lent
his support to Tokyo, but Nuzman said Silva had been more
personally involved in the bidding process than the other
leaders. Silva met repeatedly with IOC officials and he
wrote personally to its members, in letters that were
delivered by hand.

"We had a head of state who worked during two years,
who knew everything about the project," he said. "The
other three, with all my respect, they didn't. This is the
huge difference."

Nuzman said he and his team also met personally and
repeatedly with all of the IOC's members - there are 106
of them, including him - in recent years to the point where
"some of them say, they say, 'Come on, it's too much!'"

Before the vote, the Rio team's lobbying allowed it to
predict with almost spot-on accuracy the final outcome,
he said.

"We made a list of the voters," Nuzman said. "The result
that we had - it's on paper, we can show you - was final
round Rio 67, Madrid 33."

In the end, the actual result was 66 votes to 32.

CC - The Associated Press (AP) Wire.
ACC - www.olympic.org

10/01-02/2009 - News - USOC Riding For Chicago 2016
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