Chicago joins 2016 Olympic race

Chicago, which has never staged an Olympics, joins several other cities hoping to be handed the Olympic flame after London in 2012.

Madrid, Prague, Rome, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo may be joined by Azerbaijan and Qatar in the candidates' list.

Final bids have to be submitted to the IOC in September, and its members will award the 2016 Games in October 2009.

Chicago presented plans for a $366m Olympic Stadium to be built in a South Side park, and a $1.1bn Olympic Village to go up along Chicago's lakefront, where most of the athletes would stay.

"Let's remember the race is just beginning and this will be a long and difficult process," said USOC international vice-president Bob Ctvrtlik.
 
"But I assure you this will be the best prepared bid in the history of the United States."

In 1904, Chicago was the first city in the United States chosen by the IOC to host a summer Olympics, but the Games were switched to St Louis.

Chicago was considered for the 1952 and 1956 Games but failed to make it to the final round of voting.

The United States last hosted the Summer Games in 1996 when the Centennial Olympics were staged in Atlanta.

The 2002 Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City, Utah. Houston, Philadelphia and San Francisco were eliminated earlier in the US 2016 bid candidacy process. BBC