Silva optimistic about Rio’s bid for ’16 Games

Brazil’s leader is borrowing U.S. President Barack Obama’s “Yes we can” catchphrase to plug Rio de Janeiro’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics.

A day before the International Olympic Committee selects the 2016 host, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted Thursday that Rio is ready “body and soul” if picked.

At an early morning news conference, Silva largely steered clear of an ugly spat with rival Madrid that erupted in the runup to Friday’s IOC vote. Rio’s team formally complained to the IOC on Wednesday after the city’s 2016 bid was criticized by a Spanish Olympic official.

Without naming Madrid, Silva said simply: “I don’t think it is ethically correct to speak badly about the other cities.”

He did say, however, that “the fact of the matter is that no one has presented a project of the magnitude that we presented, with the quality that we presented.”

“Some say, ‘Well Brazil maybe could have presented a smaller, more shy project, not an expensive project. This is for those that don’t believe in doing things,” he said. “We want to overcome and show the world that yes we can, we can do it.”

In Brazil, some critics say funds from Rio’s Olympic budget of more than $14 billion — larger than those of Madrid, Chicago or Tokyo — would be better spent on the city’s pressing social, education and security needs.

But the IOC, in its report evaluating the city’s bid, complimented Rio for seeing the games as an opportunity to use sport as a “catalyst for social integration” and for embracing the idea that they can transform the region and leave “a lasting and affordable legacy.”

One of the big selling points Rio has used to the IOC is the fact that South America has never previously held the games — a theme Silva hit on again.