There is only one reason that Oprah is here and that U.S. President Barack Obama will join wife, Michelle, in the Danish capital Friday. Without their presence, Chicago's bid to hold the 2016 Summer Games likely wouldn't stand a chance.

The Windy City may still be in tough against Rio de Janeiro, but the star power it is bringing to Friday's showdown with the Brazilian resort town - as well as Tokyo and Madrid - should not be underestimated. As recent history has shown, the members of the International Olympic Committee who decide such matters have been known to get all weak-kneed in the company of the famous.

Ask Tony Blair.

Paris was the clear favourite to win the 2012 Summer Games. It had far more to offer than London, including facilities that were already built. But Mr. Blair and his wife, Cherie, arrived in Singapore in July, 2005, days before the final vote and wowed the IOC delegates.

London got the Games, and political leaders have become part of the bid calculus since.

Vladimir Putin's one-on-one lobbying of IOC delegates in Guatemala City in 2007 is widely viewed as what made the difference in Sochi's winning effort for the 2014 Winter Games. And now, Mr. Obama will be joined here by the President of Japan, the King of Spain and Brazil's popular President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Long-time Canadian IOC member Dick Pound concedes that political leaders - the more famous the better - can make a difference.

"How many votes they are worth I'm not sure," Mr. Pound said in an interview. "But the margins of victory have been so narrow that one or two members voting for you can possibly determine the final outcome."

It's hard to imagine there's been another time when this city felt so important. From the noisy cavalcades of limousines to the former Olympians jogging down the streets, this week's gathering has brought a little Hollywood to a city not known for its international star turns. And to think it will do it all over again in two months when it hosts a much-anticipated world conference on climate change.

Mr. Obama is not planning to attend the conference, but will be in Copenhagen this week to play a significant role in Chicago's final, 45-minute presentation to voting delegates Friday. And the city is counting on the President to be at his oratorical best when it's his turn to talk. If his words can produce a few goosebumps on the arms of some of the IOC delegates, who are often governed by emotion in the end, all the better for Chicago.

Chicago's bid team is also hoping that the President will be able to persuade delegates from the African bloc to throw their support behind his adopted hometown.

The odds of that happening are good.

A galaxy of sporting stars from Olympics past here that the bid team hopes might help dazzle an impressionable delegate or two. They include former NBA star David Robinson and track legends Michael Johnson and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Brazil is countering with soccer legend Pele.

Despite its clear advantage in celebrity firepower, Chicago may still not have the ammunition to win this fight.

Some members of the U.S. bid are convinced the IOC wants Rio to win. The Olympics have never been held in South America, so it would be a historic decision.

When Rio first applied to hold the Games, a working group from the IOC visited to see what issues, if any, the city would need to address if it was ever going to stage something the size and magnitude of the Olympics. In that report, crime was raised as a major concern.

In fact, Rio was assigned a rating in that report that was below that of other applicant cities that failed to make the final IOC cut. After Rio became one of the four finalists, a much more extensive evaluation report was done by the IOC - one that barely mentioned the crime concerns raised by its working group a year earlier.

"The evaluation report was a political document pure and simple," said a member of the Chicago bid team. "The IOC wants Rio to get it."

Under IOC rules, a city can't compare its bid against a competitor's when lobbying a voting delegate. But there are no rules against drawing the media's attention to reports that cast a competitor in an unfavourable light.

It is probably no coincidence that news stories and commentary that have surfaced in the past couple of days refer to an Oct. 5, 2009, article in the New Yorker examining violence in Rio, calling it one of the most dangerous cities on Earth.

Nor is it likely happenstance that reports have been widespread about a World Cup swim meet scheduled for Rio next month that was cancelled because of funding problems.
Somehow, you can be assured, this material will find its way to IOC delegates. Or will be whispered about in a quiet corridor or two.

Rio is prepared. It plans to address the crime question in its final presentation to IOC delegates Friday. It will say it has set aside billions for security in its budget. And it will surely point out that it held the 2007 Pan-American Games without a problem, and puts on Carnival each year without issue as well.

And it's not like Chicago doesn't have its own crime issues.

Rio is also helped by the fact that FIFA, soccer's world governing body, gave the World Cup finals to South Africa in 2010 and Brazil four years later. This puts even more pressure on the IOC to stage a Games in Africa or South America.

Other countries will be watching intently. To every IOC Olympic action there is a reaction. The outcome will have an impact on the Olympic dreams and aspirations of others.
Even Ontario will have a delegation here with its own hopes. The province wants to hold the 2015 Pan-American Games. Mr. Pound believes Toronto would be an ideal choice if Chicago wins, because then Olympic-bound athletes could come to Canada to train, practice and get used to the geography and Chicago-like climate a year earlier.

For now, all eyes are on Friday's decision. IOC president Jacques Rogge is predicting it will come down to three or four votes. So then the question will be how much is a handshake from Mr. Obama worth? Or a hug from Oprah?