A clearly tired and disappointed President Barack Obama delivered a brief statement in the White House Rose Garden after returning from his unsuccessful trip to Copenhagen to lobby for his hometown Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

Obama put a positive spin on it, saying one of the benefits of sports was that you can make a maximum effort and still lose. It was a concession speech he had hoped not to make.

But at least he had the consolation of making a concession speech in October 2009 as president in the Rose Garden and not a concession speech in November 2008 in Chicago.

Again making virtue out of necessity, the president said he was glad Rio de Janeiro won making Brazil the first South American nation to be chosen to host an Olympic Games. It was still the Americas, after all. So America won, sort of, seemed to be his point.

His comments on the failed Olympic bid:

One of the things that I think is most valuable about sports is that you can play a great game and still not win. And so while I wish that we had come back with better news from Copenhagen, I could not be prouder of my home town of Chicago the volunteers who were involved, Mayor Daley, the delegation and the American people for the extraordinary bid we put forward.

 

I do want to congratulate Rio de Janeiro and the nation of Brazil for winning the 2016 Olympics. I think this is truly a historic event as these will be the first Olympic games ever to be held in South America. And as neighbors in the Americas, as friends to the Brazilian people we welcome this extraordinary sign of progress that the 2016 games will be held in the Americas. I had a chance to talk with President Lula and gave him a hearty congratulations and told him our athletes will see him on the field of competition in 2016.