Daley: Olympic Loss Won't Harm Chicago's Future

It wasn't the homecoming Chicago's Olympic delegation expected.

The team returned home empty-handed Saturday, with Mayor Richard Daley suggesting a bid for the 2020 Olympics was unlikely but promising Chicago would come out of the recession even without the economic stimulus of the 2016 Summer Games.

"We have a great city. These are great people. We have a future just as bright as anyone else," Daley told reporters at O'Hare International Airport.

The delegation, including Daley and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, had just returned from Copenhagen where the International Olympic Committee awarded Rio de Janeiro the games. They tried to put the best face on the loss.

"All those cities said they were the best city. Chicago is the best of the best cities," Quinn said.

Chicago's loss was a high-profile international rejection that came despite personal appeals from President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, who flew to Copenhagen to lobby. Chicago was eliminated Friday in the first round of voting.

Daley said it was "unfair" to suggest losing the Olympics was a defeat for Obama, who calls Chicago home and has a house just a few blocks from where the Olympic Stadium would have been built.

"This is not a loss for Obama. I don't know where you're getting this point," Daley said. "It's not a loss for the king and queen of Spain, it's not a loss for the new prime minister of Japan."

Tokyo and Madrid were the other two unsuccessful bid cities, and their country's leaders were at the IOC meeting too.

Daley thanked Chicago's business community and other benefactors for raising money to finance the city's Olympic bid, saying the other countries had spent government money.

"We did not spend one dime" of taxpayers' money, said Daley, who also thanked volunteers who worked on the bid.

Daley suggested a 2020 bid for the Olympics was unlikely because of geographical concerns by the IOC.

"This is the only time that we fit in that geographical position," he said.

Daley acknowledged being upset and disappointed but said he's keeping perspective on the Olympic loss.

"The only great disappointment in life is if you lost a loved one," he said.