June 01, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 26, 1429

CHICAGO, May 31: The real race for the 2016 Olympic Games is about to begin.

On Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will whittle the list of seven applicant cities down to an unspecified number of finalists that can continue their efforts to win the games.

Organisers in Chicago are confident the IOC will determine they can clear that hurdle, which boils down to whether the city has the technical ability to host an Olympic Games.

After that comes the hard work: convincing IOC members that Chicago is the best site for the games.

“We all become much more focused,” said Doug Arnot, the operations chief for the city’s 2016 bid.“The analogy we’ve drawn is we’ve been playing in the regular season and now we’re going into the playoffs.”

It would be a stunning development if Chicago is not among the three, four or five finalists that officials believe will be left competing for the games.

A big reason is that Chicago has already answered the kind of technical questions about issues such as transportation, accommodations, convention space and infrastructure just to get this far.

“We do feel confident we will advance based upon the rigorous evaluation we did as a national Olympic committee by the US Olympic Committee to choose the city of Chicago,” said USOC Vice-president Bob Ctvrtlik in a conference call with reporters.

Ctvrtlik and Arnot are not concerned about where Chicago is ranked among those cities that make this cut. They pointed out that the top-ranked city at this point in the competition rarely, if ever, is ultimately awarded the games — including Madrid, which finished in the top spot for the 2012 games that were ultimately awarded to London.All that matters, Ctvrtlik and Arnot said, is moving on.

Ctvrtlik said that when the final decision will be much more subjective, more emotional, and Chicago will make a strong argument.

“This city and the concept of having an Olympics in the centre of the city, with access to the cultural institutions and the night life and the wonderful restaurants and the vibrancy of the city, that’s a unique proposition that really hasn’t been seen by the Olympic movement in a long time,” he stated.—AP