Rio says it's ready to bid on 2016 Summer Olympics

DENVER—Rio de Janeiro organizers trying to lure the 2016 Olympics are trumpeting the Brazilian city as the sensible and sentimental choice.

Rio is trying to bring the Summer Games to South America for the first time, competing against Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo, whose countries have hosted a combined 14 Olympics, including seven in the summer.

Bid officials from Brazil, Latin America's largest country, say the government fully guarantees the eye-popping price tag of $14.4 billion for the Games, which is nearly as high as the budgets of the other three candidate cities combined.

The four finalists presented their proposals Thursday to senior International Olympic Committee members at the SportAccord conference of global sports industry leaders in Denver. The IOC will select the host city on Oct. 2 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Rio's budget figure offers security and risk-free funding at a time of global economic crisis and is more realistic than the other candidate cities, Rio 2016 secretary general Carlos Roberto Osorio said.

Already, the budget for the 2012 London Olympics has soared to $16.5 billion, more than twice its original estimate.

"We really believe that our budget is realistic and is an honest budget and has everything inside it," Osorio told The Associated Press. "We accounted for everything and everything comes with a guarantee."

Rio's price tag for the Olympics stands out sharply from the other bid cities: Tokyo proposed a budget of $4.4 billion, Chicago $4.8 billion and Madrid $5.6 billion. The combined budgets of those three come to $14.8 billion.

Rio's costs include the organizing committee's operating budget of $2.8 billion, which is raised through television rights, sponsorships and ticket sales. The separate non-organizing committee budget of $11.6 billion covers construction and infrastructure costs, including renovation of airports, roads and subway lines.

The funding would be covered in part by the government's existing $240 billion investment program. The Olympic budget is guaranteed by the federal, state and city governments.

Osorio said Rio is ready after a $2 billion investment for the 2007 Pan American Games and is the prudent choice in this difficult economic climate.

Rio, which is relying heavily on venues used for the Pan American Games, says three-fourths of the sports facilities needed for the Olympics already exist. The rest will be a mix of temporary and new venues, and most of those are already under construction, some of them for events that precede the 2016 Games.

Rio would use some of the city's iconic sites under its plan, including beach volleyball on the Copacabana. The Maracana stadium, which is being renovated for the 2014 World Cup, would host the opening and closing ceremonies and soccer final. The Joao Havelange Stadium would be upgraded from 45,000 to 60,000 seats for athletics. And in a bid to heed the Olympic movement's call to appeal to youth, a new "X-Park" would be built for mountain bike, BMX and canoe/kayak slalom events.

The Americans got into some hot water at the Pan Am Games in Rio two summers ago when a U.S. Olympic committee worker complaining of the humidity scrawled "Welcome to the Congo!" on a board in the organization's media center.

Rio's O Globo newspaper published a photo of the message on its front page and ran a headline saying the joke was "full of prejudice." Although the USOC apologized, the message was condemned in a nation extremely sensitive about being compared to less-developed countries, especially by Americans -- often perceived as arrogant by Brazilians. American athletes were booed relentlessly at many of the venues.

Osorio said there's no lasting ill will, however.

"We have excellent relations with the USOC," he said. "We are good partners. And we are here together with the United States defending the Games in the Americas. Now is the time for the Americas and we believe now, within the Americas, it is time for South America."

Rio also bid for the 2004 Olympics -- as did Buenos Aires, Argentina -- and the 2012 Games, to no avail.

So, is it an obstacle or an opportunity that the Olympics have never been awarded to South America, a continent of 400 million, almost half of whom are under age 18 and almost half of whom live in Brazil?

"If you take the three bids, I could reasonably say that three of the four represent more of the same for the Olympic movement," Osorio said. "And we are offering a different environment, a tropical country in the Southern Hemisphere with a different culture. The Olympic Games have always benefited from the diversity that each host city brings to it, so we can bring a breath of fresh air to the Olympic movement."

Of course, there's the lack of experience in handling such an enormous venture, Osorio acknowledged.

"We have to show the IOC that we have technical expertise and excellence. We had an opportunity to do that at the Pan American Games," Osorio argued.

He noted that Rio de Janeiro is an hour ahead of New York, so no events would have to be shown on tape-delay like they were from Beijing last summer, and Rio's iconic sites, including the Christ the Redeemer statue atop Corcovado mountain overlooking the city, would provide the dramatic backdrop for many of the outdoor events.

"We put all the iconic features of Rio to work so that we have spectacular scenery for the Olympic Games," Osorio said. "For broadcasters, I think Rio is a dream."