WE'LL BE FINE AFTER THIS LOSS.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

We'll get over it. Feel a twinge of regret, and then move on. And from the very beginning, that was part of the problem.

In its bid to become the U.S. applicant for the 2016 Olympic Games, LosAngeles lost to Chicago.

The vote tally taken by the U.S. Olympic Committee in Washington, D.C., on Saturday was not released, but if the result is viewed a curious outcome here, there remained two underlying problems that plagued the L.A. bid from the outset.

One is L.A. never did somersaults. Never squealed like teenage girls over some pop heartthrob. Never became the buzz driving downtown.

It's not like almost everyone here would not have welcomed the Olympics, it's just that unlike Chicago, we've done that. Experienced the thrill. Know what it's like.

When you've been in love before, it isn't that you wouldn't want to experience it again. There's lament at lost opportunity, but a certain center in the knowledge of times past and still to come.

"The point that stood out for Chicago was the enthusiasm," said USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth in Washington. "The enthusiasm of the average person on the street."

A decent percentage of Southern Californians probably didn't even realize L.A. had reached this Olympic showdown. The populace, the local media, the majority of public officials, never got in a tizzy over the bid.

That's the L.A. way over most things. And L.A. is secure in its international place in the world, and hosting or not hosting the Games won't change that.

Meanwhile, Chicago was all gaga over the prospect of being home to the Games. Its gushing local media might as well have been part of the Chicago Olympic committee. It sang the city's praises like a boys choir. Questioned L.A. smog, traffic, Olympic zeal, media interest and cleanliness of Britney's tattoo parlor.

"I want to thank the Chicago press," said Pat Ryan, Chicago's bid committee chairman. "We have many best-new friends in the press."

But the even larger overriding issue with L.A.'s bid had to be the fear by USOC members that the Games simply had been here too recently and could not ultimately garner enough IOC votes to return.

The Olympics were last here in 1984, or just six Olympics ago. Only one city has ever been awarded the Games threetimes, London, and it will be 64 years between Games when London plays host in 2012.

It only would have been 32years since L.A. last hosted the Games if it had won the 2016 bid.

"I told both cities at the very beginning, it's all about getting 60 votes," Ueberroth said.

That's the approximate number of IOC votes it will take to win the bid, a vote that will not be taken until October 2009. By then Chicago is expected to be challenged on the international stage by Tokyo, Rome, Madrid, Prague, and most dangerously, Rio de Janeiro. Ominously for Chicago and the others, the Olympics have never taken place in South America. If Brazil can pull a strong bid together, it looms the favorite. And if you factor in an unspoken geographic rotation, it's unlikely the Games will return to Europe immediately after the 2012 Olympics in London.

Now Chicago will have to sweat out the next two years, schmooze with IOC members, go to a lot of expense and time and effort. Which could easily be for naught, should members decide it's overdue to go the Carnival route.

Certainly, L.A. has nothing to be ashamed about in losing. It put together a strong bid, probably the better one, if it were only able to magically discount the Games being here in '84.

"I wouldn't change one single thing," said L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in D.C. "These were two great presentations from two great cities. Somebody had to win here, and Chicago did."

Los Angeles has the venues, the athletes, the traditional Olympic competition and Hollywood support that Chicago completely lacks.

Chicago represents more of a risk for the USOC. It will have to build almost every venue and the athletes' village.

But USOC members ultimately seemed so concerned the IOC would not be willing to return this soon to Los Angeles that it gambled on a Chicago bid that is mostly a lot of promise and architectural renderings. The proposal in Chicago centers on the shoreline around Lake Michigan. If the Windy City pulls it off, it could prove to be a beautiful Olympics.

"Congratulations, Chicago," said Barry Sanders, L.A.'s bid committee chair. "I look forward to going to the Games in Chicago in 2016.

"I know all of our team looks forward to helping make sure that happens. We will pitch in, in any way we can."

Los Angeles was reduced to playing the gracious loser Saturday. Villaraigosa, ever the slick politician, thanked everyone in L.A. but his office cleaning lady, taking so long that the 25-minute loser's news conference only had time for three questions.

"Once the game is over, once the competition is over, we come together," he said. "One America."

One Olympic bid, and it's Chicago's. That's swell. Good luck, just watch out for that South American samba.

Meanwhile, L.A. will be fine. We were always going to be.

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