Rio de Janeiro will be the first South American city to host the Olympics after winning an historic vote to stage the 2016 Games at the IOC session in Copenhagen.

The Brazilians pipped the Spanish city of Madrid after the raging hot favourite Chicago who had the support of US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle was knocked out in the first ballot.

The other candidate city Tokyo was eliminated in the second round of voting.

Rio’s final pitch to the IOC members was a clincher with President Lula making an impassioned plea that his country was an economic super power and deserved to be an Olympic host for the first time.

Lula told the session it was "time to address this imbalance and send a powerful message to the whole world that the Olympic Games belong to all peoples, to all continents, to all mankind."

The Games in Rio would be a “magical moment for South America. Brazil is ready to stage an exceptional event. Give us this chance you won’t regret it,” he said.

A high crime rate was seen as the negative for Rio but the bid team assured the delegates “they could guarantee a safe and secure Games.”

To counter crime Rio has spent $3.5 billion on a public safety campaign. 75% of their Olympic venues already exist and they highlighted the attractive beaches and bays around the city where the Olympic events would be staged.

In what was seen as a major vote winner they told the IOC members 30 million Brazilians “had been lifted out of poverty in the past ten years and the Games would help even more poor Brazilians to escape poverty”.

Madrid was a rank outsider but has the support of two Olympic heavyweights, King Juan Carlos and the former President of the International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch.

The elder statesman of the Olympic movement, former President Samaranch appealed to his old colleagues, “I know that I am very near the end of my time. As you know I am 89 years old, I ask you to consider granting my country the honour and also the duty to organize the Games in 2016,” he said.

His heartfelt plea struck a chord with the delegates. King Juan Carlos, a 1972 Olympian, told the gathering “a vote for Madrid would foster the Olympic values throughout the world. There would be more understanding and solidarity and the world would be a better place to live following Madrid 2016” he said.

Earlier President Barack Obama became the first US President to address an IOC Session. He told delegates “peaceful competition between nations is all that is good about humanity. One of the legacies I want to see coming out of Chicago is a reminder that America at its best is open to the world.”

The new Prime Minister of Japan, Yukio Hatoyama, also focused on world peace in his pitch to the IOC.

“The Games (in Tokyo) will make the world a better place” he said.

Both walked away without the prize.

Mike Tancred - AOC
Copenhagen