Charles Rex Arbogast / AP

Oprah Winfrey arrives at the Art Institute of Chicago for a dinner in honor of the International Olympic Committee's Evaluation Committee visiting the city this week. Winfrey was one of several big names the city used in its presentation to the IOC.

"When the time comes when somebody's got to step up and provide extra fencing, guards, FBI help, security, they will have it,'' he said. "This intergovernmental cooperation is just music to (the IOC's) ears.''

Hula suggested another reason it all may have sounded good to the IOC.

"There is this preconception on the part of the IOC and other people involved in Olympic sports that the U.S. government is fairly dismissive of the Olympic movement,'' he said.

Organizers hope the IOC was equally impressed by other voices, including Comaneci, Conner and Bryan Clay, who won gold in the decathlon at the Beijing Games.

"In the last few days we had 70 Olympic and paralympic athletes working with us and I think that really resonated with the evaluation commission, to see how involved (they) have been in the design on our bid and particularly focused on the design of the venues,'' Ryan said.

Comaneci praised Chicago's vision for a compact games, agreeing with Conner that it can only help athletes' performance. She provided a perspective that organizers wanted commissioners to hear — starting with El Moutawakel, an Olympic hurdling champion from Morocco.

"From athletes' point of view, when you come to a place where people speak your language ... it's very convenient for the athlete,'' Comaneci said before talking with IOC commissioners. She noted Chicago is home to many Romanians, making it more comfortable for her and her mother when she visits.

Organizers hammered on that message time and again. Mayor Richard Daley spoke of a city built and rebuilt by immigrants. Ryan noted the dozens of languages spoken in Chicago. On the IOC's final day here, the IOC viewed a video about the city's ethnic diversity in which the narrator said every Olympic team that comes to Chicago "will feel like the home team.''

And Obama, in his video, painted Chicago as "a city where races, religions and nationalities all live and work and play and reach for the American dream that brought them here.''

If it sounds like overkill, Frazier said it was necessary.

"Chicago's biggest advantage is it is the only one of the bid cities that the Poles should be cheering for, the Romanians should be cheering for,'' he said. "Show me a Greektown in Tokyo."