Chicago shows its Olympic face to USOC

After spending a day indoors quizzing Chicago officials about their bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, a U.S. Olympic Committee inspection team began exploring the city Wednesday to see where some events would be held.

The itinerary for a second day of touring was to include existing venues as well as proposed sites where others would be built if Chicago is chosen to host the 2016 Games. Los Angeles is the only other American candidate.

The 11-member inspection team visited the McCormick Place convention center _ which would host fencing, table tennis, rhythmic gymnastics and judo competitions _ and stopped at the adjacent Hyatt Regency hotel for a bird's-eye view of a proposed athletes' village.

From a room on the 33rd floor, USOC officials looked out at balloons marking the village and a proposed outdoor dining area and private beach.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama provided star power Tuesday, lending his support in a videotaped message to the 11-member inspection team.

"Chicago is more than just a city in the middle of America, Chicago is the heart of America," the Illinois senator said.

The city's bid leader, businessman Patrick Ryan, said Tuesday before hosting a dinner at The Art Institute of Chicago that he thinks the visitors are "very impressed."

The USOC visited Los Angeles last week and will choose its candidate city in April. The International Olympic Committee will select the host in 2009. Other expected bidders are Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Tokyo.

Chicago's campaign to show its Olympic spirit is in full swing. The city's nighttime skyline is lit with Olympic messages on buildings, and shirts bearing the city's slogan _ "Chicago 2016 _ Stir The Soul" _ are in stores.

On Wednesday, a single protester tried to heckle Olympic officials as they readied for their bus tour, shouting through a megaphone that the Olympics would displace the city's poor.

Ryan said a key issue for USOC officials was to ensure the city chosen as the eventual American bidder can attract the international support needed to lure the games.

"There was good dialogue on that. ... I think we handled that well," he said.

Earlier Tuesday, Bob Berland, who won a silver medal in judo at the 1984 Olympics, said Chicago's bid committee was well prepared.

"We haven't been caught off guard because we've done our homework," said Berland, co-chair of the committee's athlete advisory group.

Business and civic leaders already have raised more than $30 million to finance Chicago's Olympic effort and would have to pony up more if the city wins the U.S. bid and then is awarded the games.

"The Chicago business community is four square behind our bid for the Olympic Games," Mayor Richard M. Daley said in welcoming the USOC.

Unlike Los Angeles, the 1932 and 1984 host, Chicago would have to build many Olympic sites, including a stadium and an Olympic Village. But Chicago insists its Olympics would be concentrated mostly on the downtown lakefront, making it easier to get around than in sprawling Los Angeles.

Chicago plans to build a $366 million, 80,000-seat temporary stadium in a South Side park and a $1.1 billion lakefront athletes' village.

Olympic officials got a look at one venue Tuesday when they met at Soldier Field, which would host the soccer competition. The inspection team arrived at the lakefront stadium sporting black evaluation-team parkas on a blustery, frigid morning.

Among those on hand to support the bid was Bart Conner, a two-time gold medalist gymnast who began his sport as a child in the Chicago suburb of Evanston. He said the compactness of Chicago's proposed Olympics _ with athletes living near most of the venues _ is a real selling point.

"This is huge," he said.