4-way battle over 2016
The International Olympic Committee on Friday launched into a key meeting to choose the host for the 2016 Olympics with US President Barack Obama pressing the case for Chicago against government leaders and kings from rival bidders.
Japan's new prime minister Yukio Hatoyama is fighting for Tokyo, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva for Rio de Janeiro and Spain's King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero campaigning for Madrid.
Chicago were first to give their presentation to the 100-plus members of the IOC.
Generally seen as odds on favourites, they were led by a relaxed looking Obama and his wife Michelle as they bid to become the first American city to host the Summer Games since Atlanta in 1996.
Obama, former senator of Illinois and resident of Chicago for nearly 25 years, flew in on Friday while the US First Lady has been lobbying IOC members here since Wednesday.
The President did not speak first, but was later introduced to the podium by his wife to whom he gave a tender kiss before setting out his vision of why Chicago should host the Games.
"The reason I chose to settle in Chicago 25 years ago is not just because I met that lady who just spoke but because I fell in love with it," he said.
"I was born in Hawaii and was taken to Indonesia so I never really had any roots until I came to Chicago and discovered this most American of cities which nevertheless possesses 130 different ethnic groups.
"It is a rich tapestry of neighbourhoods. If you choose us we walk this path together."
Michelle Obama had used her father as her inspiration for bringing the Games to her hometown.
"Even when he was increasingly suffering from multiple sclerosis he would struggle on his crutches and play with us and he taught me a mean right hook," said the First Lady, who was born and raised in the South Side of the city.
"I am not just asking you to give us the Games as a Chicagoan or as an American but also as a daughter. My father would have been so proud to see us here bidding for the Games."
The First Lady also said that the Games was seen by her and her husband as a vital strand in their diplomatic strategy.
"We would use these Games as a vehicle for reaching out to the world. It would usher in a new era of international engagement."
Chicago began first to be followed by Tokyo, the only one of the four to have previously hosted the Games, Rio, attempting to bring the Games to South America for the first time, and rank outsiders Madrid.
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