Washington - United States president Barack Obama will come to Copenhagen next month to lobby for Chicago when the 2016 Olympics host is elected, if he manages to leave the health reform debate for a while, news reports said on the weekend. The reports carried by Chicago papers and others like the Los Angeles Times said that a White House advance team is being dispatched for the Danish capital to prepare the ground should Obama come, in what would be a big boost for his adopted home town.
"Obama hopes to make the overseas trip if he can do so without jeopardizing healthcare legislation, his advisors say," said the Los Angeles Times.
The International Olympic Committee elects the 2016 host city on October 2, with Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Madrid the other candidates in a race considered wide open.
Spanish King Juan Carlos and prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero head the Madrid delegation, Brazil president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will lobby for Rio and new Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama is "seriously" considering helping the Tokyo bid in Copenhagen.
The White House said last week that Obama could not commit himself to come but that his wife, Chicago-born First Lady Michelle Obama, will join the bid team.
Some suggested he would not go in order to avoid returning home as a loser if Chicago doesn't get the 2016 Games.
Now it appears that he is making efforts to go.
Michelle Obama is rated a persuasive saleswoman and has charmed many people in past months, but the presence of the US president, still considered the most powerful man in the world and very popular in the case of Obama, would carry even more weight before the IOC.
IOC president Jacques Rogge told German Press Agency
