I want to share some great news that Chicago 2016 received recently. Zogby International, an established polling company that tracks public opinion on a variety of topics, conducted a survey of residents in the Chicago area to gauge their support for our efforts to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games here in 2016. I’m happy to report that enthusiasm among Chicagoans for the bid remains high. The poll found that 84 percent of the sample supports the bid, up from 76 percent at this time last year. This result is significant and indicates that our efforts to spread the word about the positive impact the Games can have on the city have been effective. With the International Olympic Committee’s selection of the cities that will move on to the next phase of the bidding process a bit more than a month away, we feel we are moving in the right direction. However, we still have a lot of work to do. Please continue to share information about the bid with your friends and colleagues. Together we can accomplish the goal of a 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Chicago.

Best regards,
Patrick G Ryan
Chairman and CEO
Chicago 2016

Nearly 500 members of the media descended on the Palmer House Hilton April 14-16 to interview 130 top U.S. athletes. Mayor Daley welcomed all in attendance at an opening session, and the U.S. Olympic Committee and Chicago 2016 held press conferences to talk about the upcoming Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games and Chicago’s plan for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Here are a few highlights and notable statistics from the summit:

•Nearly 100 U.S. athletes pledged to promote our country’s bid as they travel to Beijing and beyond and more than 50 offered videotaped statements of support for Chicago 2016.

• BMX champion Donny Robinson threw out the first pitch for the Cubs-Reds game on April 15, and Olympian Misty May-Treanor sang during the seventh-inning stretch.

• There were nearly 45 broadcast stories and more than 125 print stories on Chicago 2016 at the summit.

• Special thanks goes to the 100-plus volunteers in Chicago 2016 T-shirts who greeted media and athletes, guided athletes through interviews, answered questions and handled transportation needs, among other tasks.

We look forward to building on the relationships we established with athletes as well as the media as we move forward with the bid.

Elementary schools across the Chicago area will celebrate Olympic Week in America, a school-based educational and enrichment program that will educate students about the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The program, which is scheduled for the week of May 5, includes lesson plans and a guide to conducting a school field day, complete with opening and closing ceremonies.

Chicago 2016 conducted a professional-development session on April 11 for more than 50 Chicago Public School physical-education teachers, who will coordinate activities in their own schools. The training included an opening ceremony, a talk by three-time Olympian Jim Spivey, and a mini field day in which the teachers played wheelchair basketball and competed in the agility run and the broad jump.

Olympic Week in America will further strengthen Chicago 2016’s relationship with area schools. Each elementary school that fully participates in Olympic Week in America will earn special recognition from Chicago 2016 and receive a range of unique opportunities, including a school visit from an Olympian or Paralympian during Chicago 2016’s bid.

Check back at the Chicago 2016 Web site to see the progress of Olympic Week in America at schools across the city.

Here are highlights from several events over the past month that the Chicago 2016 Community Relations team has participated in:

Community Relations calendar

Sunday, March 30—Drawing on the legacy of the ancient Olympiad, the 2008 Chicago Greek Parade presented a tribute to the Olympic Games. Chicago 2016 was on hand to celebrate with a float full of Olympians, Paralympians, and Chicago 2016 volunteers.

Wednesday, April 2—The Community Relations team presented details of the bid to residents at a Douglas Park Advisory Council meeting and fielded questions from those in attendance.

Thursday, April 3—Chicago 2016 and a volunteer team traveled to Tinley Park to participate in the Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce’s annual Business Expo.

Tuesday, April 8—Olympian Bob Berland and Director of Community Relations Gyata Kimmons presented to the Illinois College of Optometry Community Advisory Board. After communicating key aspects of the bid, Berland and Kimmons took questions from members of the community located in and around the Gap neighborhood. Groups attending the meeting included the Illinois Institute of Technology, the Fuller Park Community Development Group, and the Chicago branch of the Salvation Army.

With summer right around the corner, festivals and parades will be occurring almost every weekend. Be sure to keep an eye out for a Chicago 2016 booth, float or presentation at the following events.

Maybe it’s the suit. Or it could be that “it’s mental.”

Either way, 2004 Olympian swimmer Ryan Lochte, 24, is feeling smashingly brilliant after setting three world records this month at the Ninth FINA Short Course World Championships in Manchester, England.

The New York–born University of Florida graduate posted a 51.15 in the finals of the 100-meter individual medley to shave 0.1 seconds off the world mark he set in the semifinals a day earlier. Lochte set a world record of 1:51.56 in the 200 IM and also led off the U.S. swimmers’ world-record effort in the 400-meter freestyle relay. In all, he finished the meet with four gold medals and two silver.

And he did it while wearing the Speedo LZR Racer, a new swimsuit that many athletes will don in Beijing at the Olympic and Paralympic Games this year.

“The suit stats say it has 5 percent less drag,” Lochte said about the LZR, named in part because its seams are sealed with a laser. “I feel when I put that suit on, I can do anything. That’s what I’m going to keep on doing.”

Lochte’s impressive résumé includes swimming to gold in an upset of the Australian team as a member of the 4 x 200 free relay at the 2004 Games in Athens. He added a silver in the 200 IM. He was also a gold medalist in the 800-meter free relay and the bronze medalist in both the 200 back and IM at the 2005 World Championships, as well as the 2004 Short Course World champion in the 800 free relay, silver medalist in the IM and bronze medal winner in the 200 free.

“After the 2004 Olympic Games, I made a four-year plan for 2008 with my coach,” he said. “I’ve been [keeping to] my plan. [But after] Manchester at the Short Course Worlds, my coach said I’m ahead of schedule. It’s sweet.”
He will soon focus on qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, which will be held in June. But first he will revel in his recent world short course records and victories, which bring his medal total in these events to eight gold, four silver and three bronze.

“Knowing you did something no one else can do is worth it,” he said.  “It’s something I’ll never forget for a lifetime.”

Melissa Stockwell of Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood is heading to the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

The disabled Iraq War veteran set a U.S. record of 5:03.08 in the 400-meter freestyle at this month’s U.S. Paralympic Swimming Trials to earn a berth to the Beijing Games.  Now she is the first Iraq vet to make the U.S. Paralympic team.

“I know there will be others that follow and make it to Beijing; the swimming trials just came first,” Stockwell said. “Many other Iraq vets have trained hard in their sports [and] will make it to Beijing. We will be over there representing our country together.”

A former gymnast in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and also a diver and rower, Stockwell, 28, lost her left leg when a bomb exploded near her Humvee during a convoy supply mission in Baghdad on April 13, 2004. The event reportedly made her the first female soldier to lose a limb in that war.

After enduring 15 surgeries at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Stockwell took up swimming during her rehabilitation. Serious training at Northwestern University led to her selection in January to the Veterans’ Paralympic Perfomance Program and a chance to train at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Pursuing this opportunity meant she had to leave her husband, Dick, in Chicago, where he is studying medicine.

Stockwell plans to return to Chicago after the Paralympic Games and resume her position working with other disabled people at Scheck and Siress, a prosthetics company in Oak Park, Illinois. But with her swim career only just under way, the chance for her to compete in Chicago should the city earn the right to host the 2016 Paralympic Games is a possibility.

“Having the Paralympic Games in Chicago would be fantastic,” she said. “Lake Michigan makes the perfect backdrop for athletes and fans to come to the different venues and not only enjoy the athletic events but enjoy the scenery, see historic downtown Chicago and make it an all-around memorable experience.”

First, Stockwell hopes to bring home a medal from Beijing. “My focus now is similar to what it was before the trials: to train as hard as I can and improve my times,” she said. “Medaling is the obvious next step, but I don’t want to focus on that. I am proud of getting to this point and [I hope that] my training will pay off in Beijing.”