The Rio 2016 bid committee woke up in Copenhagen this morning as the Rio 2016 organizing committee after Friday’s decisive 66-32 victory over Madrid to win the right to host the Games.
Spokesperson Mike Lee said “the decision is historic; the vote is historic.”
Carlos Nuzman has already assumed the role of President of the yet-to-be-named committee and Carlos Osario will continue his role as Secretary General.
And only a few hours after the victory and subsequent celebrations at a Copenhagen hotel – the Rio 2016 team is trying on their new role for size. Staff were already handing out “victory pens” that had the Rio 2016 logo with the words “Candidate City” removed and their website has all traces of those same words eliminated.
“We already had the first meeting with the IOC, they said… relax!”, said Nuzman.
He said the next official meeting will be scheduled for the middle of November.
Nuzman unveiled “the final presentation and the final map”, referring to maps of the world the Rio bid has used in campaign presentations that show locations and numbers of past and future Olympic Games in each continent with only South America and Africa empty. This new map boldly displayed a big “1” over Brazil.
Nuzman looked relaxed and happy as he recollected the journey that got his bid to the gold medal podium.
“June 17 to October 2 was the most stressed time we had” he said referring to a successful presentation made at an IOC meeting in Lausanne. The Rio team has made the most successful presentations among the bids including another key presentation at an international sports conference in March in Denver.
“We won in Denver, we won in Lausanne and we won again here.”
Thinking back about the potential impact of President Obama coming to Copenhagen to support the Chicago 2016 bid Nuzman said “President Lula invited President Obama to come.”
“I had a wish, a very, very, strong wish that President Obama comes.”
“Rio needed President Obama to come – we will win with him. There will be no excuses for the future.”
He said President Lula did so much for the bid and spent time and effort.
“President Lula sent a personal letter (to IOC Members) and the ambassador delivered by hand.”
“This was different than the other bids. Rio delivered the Olympic Act, what other city delivered the Olympic act? The differences are so big.”
Nuzman explained why he was so confident Rio would win the bid.
“On September 28 … we made a final list … of the votes, and our strategy. The result that we have – it’s on paper, we can show, final round; Rio 67, Madrid 33 and we missed two members.”
The actual vote was Rio 66, Madrid 32.
“We worked, we traveled, we spoke with all IOC Members.
“Some said come on, too much!”
Nuzman also explained how he engaged potential international television partners as part of the process. He approached NBC Television before the Denver conference.
“I was the first President of a bid to ask questions and share information”
Nuzman believes his bid has set a new model for bids in the future.
