The President of Rio 2016 claimed that if Obama had not turned up and Chicago had been beaten then they would have cried foul because Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was a high-profile member of their delegation.

Nuzman said: "I was very happy that Obama came, we needed Obama to come because we knew we would win with him here - we did not want any excuses."

Obama's presence, along with his wife, the First Lady Michelle, failed to prevent Chicago being eliminated in the first round and then Rio recording the biggest margin of victory since members started voting in 1933, when the Olympics were awarded to Berlin at the Session in Vienna.

Nuzman claimed that the crushing victory by 66 votes to Madrid's 32 was no surprise to him and his team.

He said: "We sat down on September 30 and wrote it down on a piece of paper - we worked it out we would get 67 votes in the third round and Madrid would get 33.

"You can see the piece of paper if you want."

There has been criticism of the presence of Heads of State at this Session, a trend started four years ago when Britain's then Prime Minister Tony Blair turned-up on the eve of the vote in Singapore to lobby successfully on behalf of London 2012.

Vladimir Putin, then the Russian President, also turned up at the Session in Guatemala City in 2007 when Sochi were awarded the 2014 Winter Olympics.
 

Nuzman said: "Everything is going to change for the next bids.

"But Lula was working with us for the last two years.
 

"The difference for us was that we had a Head of State who knew everything about the project - the other three, with all my respect, did not.

"He came to the IOC Evaluation Commission three times when they visited, this is completely different from the other cities.

"And on October 1 Lula passed the Olympic Act to show we are ready to start the organisation on October 3 - the difference is so big between what he has done and what the others have done.
 

"To sum up the difference between the four heads of state, Lula sent a personal letter to the IOC and his Ambassadors delivered it by hand - that speaks for itself."

Rio officials today held a series of meetings with the IOC to begin planning for 2016.

A delegation from the IOC are due to visit Rio next month to continue discussions.

Nuzman said: "We've already had the first meeting with the IOC and the first thing they said to us was to relax.

"They said we don't need to talk about what we're going to do yet.
 

"We will have the first meeting with the IOC in Rio in mid November - the organising committee will be there but first the IOC have obliged us to take it easy."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected].


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