While it’s not exactly about living abroad or moving overseas, what captures the spirit of international living better than the Olympic Games? In short order, we will know the location of the 2016 Summer Olympic games. And it is an exciting time for the cities/countries hoping to attract the largest sporting event in the world. Much is on the line. Aside from drawing the interest of people from all over the world, it obviously secures billions of dollars of investment.

As of right now, it seems that Chicago is the front runner to win the bid. Rio, Tokyo and Madrid are the other cities that have emerged as front runners. However, the article linked here points out that the process used to arrive at the eventual winner makes it quite difficult to predict who will eventually be selected:

“The round-by-round system makes predicting a winner perilous, because the outcome depends on how members shift their votes after their favorite candidates are eliminated. If Madrid is ejected first, would its supporters swing behind Rio, Tokyo or Chicago, and by how much in each case? And if Tokyo goes out next, where will its backers go? The variables are such that any city could conceivably go out — even if Chicago and Rio have long been seen as the front-runners.”

As an aside, I cannot believe we are really preparing for the 2016 games. Anyone else feel like the millennium was yesterday?