Sportcal.com analyses the contest to host sport’s biggest prize 

Race for 2016, Sportcal’s newly-published, 36-page, full-colour magazine telling you all you need to know about the campaigns of the four cities bidding to host the 2016 Olympic Games, is now available free of charge on your computer screen via our new online reader.

With the clock counting down until the International Olympic Committee selects the host city for the 2016 games at its Session in Copenhagen on October 2, it’s still anybody’s games.

The race for 2016 has been and remains, by common consent, the closest for years, with no clear leader or favourite having emerged during the candidacy phase which began in June 2008, with the elimination of Baku, Doha and Prague from the race.

The candidates – Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo – have each run distinctive campaigns of varying effectiveness, with Chicago perhaps identified most often as the city to beat, although Rio de Janeiro has more recently been mentioned as a serious contender.

In Race for 2016, Sportcal.com presents a comprehensive summary of each of the four bids – their vital statistics, leaders, finances, strengths and weaknesses, venues, recent Olympic medal track record and experience of hosting major events – along with our own insight into the story of each campaign.

Taken together with comments from the IOC’s own recent evaluation commission report, we hope that Race for 2016 helps you to make up your mind which one of these four great cities most deserves to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

If you would like to receive a hard copy of the publication, costing £25, please click on the ‘Add to Cart’ icon.

If you would like to follow the build up to the final decision for the 2016 host city through Sportcal’s industry-leading daily news service then complete the enquiry form by clicking here and one of Sportcal’s sales team will be in contact with you.