President Obama's visit to Copenhagen to canvas for Chicago's candidacy as Olympic City 2016 was doomed to failure before the president even arrived in the Danish capital - a group of IOC nations had already decided to reject the city, Politiken has learned. Voting on the choice between Chicago, Madrid, Rio or Tokyo had been decided beforehand as a result of what several major IOC organisations perceived as the American Olympic Committee's greed. Chicago had been touted by bookmakers and many so-called experts as the favourite to win the voting sweepstake. According to Politiken's information, the coordinated action in rejecting Chicago came as a result of dissatisfaction with the fact that the American Olympic Committee is to receive a DKK 2.3 billion grant in the four-year period up to 2012 as a result of a permanent contract with the IOC. The grant is the result of a contract between the two parties in connection with a loan to the IOC in the 1980s, at which time the IOC was in dire financial straits.
