Chicago’s Daley Plaza, where a large crowd had gathered to watch the results, was reportedly so silent you could hear a pin drop when the windy city lost.

On Thursday, we looked at the Olympic bids as they came down to the wire, with Sports Illustrated’s Brian Cazeneuve, Olympic historian David Wallechinsky, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington, and Paulo Sotero, director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Sotero, who was Washington correspondent for one of Brazil’s leading newspapers for 17 years, made a strong case for why Brazil deserves to host the games:

Nothing against Chicago. It’s a great city. Nothing against Michelle and Barack Obama. Most people love them in Brazil. Just the fact that the world is a little bit bigger than the United States. There are changing, momentous changes in the world. Brazil is one of the new players in the world. Brazil is a great country, a welcoming people. Rio de Janeiro is one of the most beautiful cities on earth, and it’s time that the Olympic Games move somewhere else. It would just simply not be reasonable, it doesn’t make sense, to have it once again in the United States. The United States will have plenty of opportunities to host the games. But I think Brazilians are really ready to welcome the re-elected President Obama to Rio de Janeiro in 2016 to help us open the Olympic Games there.

The facilities for the Vancouver Olympics will be broken down into two categories competition and non-competition venues.

Competition Venues

The Competition Olympic venues for the Vancouver Olympics will be located in four adjacent cities Whistler, West Vancouver, Vancouver and Richmond.

Vancouver is the hub of the Olympic activity, but events for the games will be spread throughout the four different locales.

Vancouver and Richmond

Vancouver is home to four main sporting venues for the 2010 Olympic Games. These sporting venues include Canada Hockey Place, Vancouver Olympic Center, Pacific Coliseum, UBC Thunderbird Arena.

These events will host events such as hockey, curling, and figure skating. Speed skating will be held at the Richmond Olympic Oval which is located in downtown Vancouver in Richmond city.

Whistler

Whistler is second only to Vancouver in its importance and number of planned events at the 2010 Olympic Games.

You will find multiple competition venues located in Whistler including The Whistler Sliding Center, Whistler Creekside, and Whistler Olympic Park/ Whistler Paralympic Park. A number of exciting events will be held at these Olympic venues including bobsleigh, luge, skeleton, and alpine skiing.

In fact, Whistler Olympic/Paralympic park alone will host a number of events including Olympic biathlon, Paralympic biathlon, Olympic cross country skiing, Paralympic cross country skiing, Nordic combined, and ski jumping.

West Vancouver

One of the most breathtakingly beautiful Olympic venues you will visit is Cypress Mountain located in Cypress Provincial Park in the district of West Vancouver. You will find that the views of the city of Vancouver and its harbor are not to be missed, but Cypress Mountain will also host some events that shouldn’t be missed. You can see the freestyle skiing and snowboarding events at this popular British Columbia ski area, during the Vancouver games.

Non-Competition Olympic Venues

There are two main locations where you will find the non-competition venues for the Vancouver Olympic Games. The non-competition venue cities include Vancouver and Whistler. The Canadian Olympic committee has set up these non-competition venues to make certain the games go of without a hitch.

Vancouver

In the city of Vancouver you will find a number of non-competition venues for the 2010 Olympic Games. These venues include BC Place, the Main Media Centre, and the Olympic/Paralympic Village. BC place is the venue in which you will attend to see the opening and closing ceremonies along with the nightly award ceremonies for the games. On the southeast side of False Creek in Vancouver you will find the Olympic and Paralympic village. You will find that the village for the 2010 Olympic games is centrally located for easy access to shopping, entertainment, ceremonies, and dining. Additionally, you may be surprised to learn that the village features sustainable housing that will be converted to a residential neighborhood after the completion of the Vancouver Olympics.

Whistler

Whistler is another important place for you to be familiar with for your trip to the Vancouver Olympics. Like Vancouver, Whistler will have a number of non-competition Olympic venues to compliment the events being held there. Whistler will have its own Olympic/Paralympic village. The newly constructed Olympic village is located in the scenic Cheakamus Valley.

The Whistler Conference Centre will house the MMC or Main Media Centre for the International press, and you can view the nightly awards ceremonies at the Whistler Olympic Celebration Plaza.

The Olympic Games ( winter & summer) are organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The headquarters is in Lausanne (Switzerland).The mission of the International Olympic Committee is to promote the Olympic movement in the world.

Singapore -one of the Asia’s poorest countries in the 1940s- will host the 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games in 2010. It beat a rival bid from the Russian capital city of Moscow. Singapore is one of the smallest countries in the world.

Tuvalu is an Olympic country since 2007.

The IOC has more member states than the United Nations. However,many territories are not members.The following territories are not members of the IOC: Anguilla, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gibraltar, Greenland, Guadeloupe, Macao, Martinique, Montserrat, New Caledonia, Northern Marinas, Turks & Caicos, Northern Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Reunion, Western Sahara, Norfolk and Nieu.

The I Summer Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896. Athletes from host-country won 46 Olympic medals.

Jacques Rogge is currently president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). He was born in Belgium. This great Olympic leader once said: “The challenge of our Olympic Movement is to make the education of youth through sport as relevant today as it was when Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee on this principle over 100 years ago. All of us who work under the Olympic rings have the social responsability to demonstrate by our example that sport teaches us how to respect ourselves and one another, how to strive for excellence in all that we do and, perhaps above all else, the importance of friendship and peace…”

The German Democratic Republic (or East Germany) was an Olympic country from 1960 to 1988.

The 2014 Winter Olympics will be hosted by Sochi (Russian Federation). The Moscow government has approved an unprecedented US$ 12 billion for the development of the Games.