Larry Downing / Reuters

Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, right, jumps out of his seat as the U.S. Olympic Committee announces Chicago as the U.S. bid for the 2016 Olympics.

Both the city of Chicago and the state of California complied. Ryan also said Saturday that an insurance company is pledging to provide a $500 million policy to cover revenue shortfalls and cost overruns, though not related to completion of venues.

“The legacy projects, coupled with the guarantees they have offered, I believe gave our board a level of assurance that might have been the differentiation between the cities,” Ctvrtlik said.

The USOC’s process for 2016 began a year ago, with Houston, Philadelphia and San Francisco also in the running. Houston and Philadelphia were eliminated by the USOC last July, and San Francisco dropped out in November.

“This was a fair process,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said after Saturday’s announcement. “We will work with Chicago.”

Ueberroth and others spoke about the importance of the U.S. candidate having success when the IOC picks a 2016 host.

Chicago is considered to have a good shot against its international competition, because, by 2016, 20 years will have passed since the last time the United States hosted the Summer Olympics — at Atlanta in 1996.

Also, a U.S. bid for 2016 could be helped by the idea of geographical rotation, because the IOC picked European cities for the Summer Olympics of 2004 (Athens) and 2012 (London), and an Asian city (Beijing) for 2008.

“We did everything we could. They (the USOC) obviously thought Chicago would be a better sell” to the IOC, said John Naber, a vice president on the committee that tried to bring the Olympics to Southern California.

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