Chicago's 2016 bid committee hopes the 80 pages of information it sent last week to the International Olympic Committee will help distinguish the quality of the city's Summer Olympic bid from those of its six rivals. After all, the IOC will pick finalist cities in June largely on the basis of that information.

The American city of Chicago is such a hot favourite to win the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympics that only they can mess it up, a senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) member told AFP.