For a time, the international media focused on lobbying efforts by U.S. President Barack Obama, a Chicagoan, who together with his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, personally lobbied IOC delegates in Copenhagan to choose Chicago. In spite of Obama's massive star power and the accompanying international media onslaught, delegates still had the courage to make the right choice by picking the South American metropolis.

Rio is well-known around the world, both for being a major international city and as home to such international celebrities as football legend Pele, World Cup-famous football team manager Alberto Parreira, author Paulo Coelho and tennis ace Gustavo Kuerten.

The selection of Rio is nothing less than a historic victory for Brazil and all of South America. After all, this will be the first time since the modern Olympic Games started being held in 1896 that the event has been organized on the South American continent.

It will be only the second time in the event's history for the Olympic Games to be held in a Latin American country following the successful 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City. This will also mark only the second time that an Olympiad is being held in the southern hemisphere following Sydney in 2000.

The time was long overdue for the Olympic Games to be held in South America. Three times have proven to be a charm for Rio, which had already made failed bids for the 2004 and 2012 Games.

While the city of Chicago is surely disappointed, the United States has already hosted the Olympics four times, including twice in recent memory in 1984 and 1996. Spain has only hosted the Summer Games once with the 1992 Barcelona Games. But since the Games are only held once every four years, this is still very recent and fresh in the memories of people around the world.

Tokyo has the unusual distinction of winning the right to host two Olympiads, in 1940 and 1964. However, due to the outbreak of World War II, which Japan unfortunately played a major role in starting, Tokyo has only actually hosted a single Olympiad in 1964.

From a purely geographic point of view, the finalists should obviously have been Rio and Tokyo. But Rio should have been the clear favorite because the Games were just held in Asia in Beijing in 2008.

Rio is a truly cosmopolitan city fully capable of hosting a successful Olympics. Technical problems cited by the IOC, such as a lack of adequate hotel rooms to host the large number of visitors, will surely be taken care of by the time the Rio Olympics begin. Besides the attraction of the legendary city, famous for its Carnival and nightlife, the nation of Brazil has also emerged as a major international force in world athletics.

　　At the last Olympiad in Beijing, Brazil won 15 medals, including the gold for women's volleyball, women's long jump and 50-meter freestyle men's swimming. Two of the three gold medals were earned by women, a first in the country's history, and all three were garnered in competitions that Brazil had never previously won at the Olympics.

　　Brazil has sent large teams to every Olympic Games since 1920, with the exception of Amsterdam in 1928. In Beijing, Brazil dispatched its largest-ever delegation, with 277 athletes of whom nearly half were women.

While Brazil has won Olympic medals in many events in recent years, virtually all major sports are widely popular in the country.

　　Many people here clearly remember the excellent performance of Brazilian athletes at the World Games held in Kaohsiung last July, which featured sporting events not held at the Olympiads.

At the 2009 World Games, Brazil's 77-member delegation came in 16th overall, taking three gold, three silver and three bronze medals. Hosting the Olympics will help more people around the world become more familiar with Brazil, the world's fifth-largest nation both in terms of geographic area and population.

　　While most industrialized nations are still reeling from the recent economic meltdown, Brazil's economy is still growing and currently ranks as the world's 10th largest economic entity. The people of Rio and Brazil should be heartily congratulated for winning this opportunity and wished all the best for a successful event.