The Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro mounted a successful bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Paralympics. It was submitted on September 7, 2007, and recognized as an Applicant city by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) one week after. On June 4, 2008, the IOC Executive Board shortlisted Rio de Janeiro with three of the six other Applicant cities—Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo; over Baku, Doha and Prague—becoming a Candidate city during the 2008 SportAccord Convention in Athens, Greece.

Rio de Janeiro was shortlisted receiving a 6.4 score, according to a study of its Application File delivered to the IOC Working Group on January 14, 2008. As a Candidate city, Rio de Janeiro submitted its Candidature File to the IOC on February 11, 2009. The dossier was analyzed by the IOC Evaluation Commission, which arrived in the city on April 27, 2009, to assess the quality of the bid. Between April 29 and May 2, the Commission attended technical presentations and made inspections in all the existing venues across the city, giving a favorable assessment in its final report.

The Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) chose Rio de Janeiro as its bidding city to host the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, during its Annual Assembly on September 1, 2006. This was the city's first bid that proceeded to the Candidature phase, after three failed attempts to host the Games in 1936, 2004 and 2012. The lengthy and intensive bidding process was concluded with the election of Rio de Janeiro as the host city during the 121st IOC Session, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on October 2, 2009. It is the first city in South America to host the Games.

Rio de Janeiro planned to organize the Games at a cost of US$14.4 billion, being able to hold all sport events (excepting football) inside the city. There will be 30 competition venues in four Olympic zones—Barra, Copacabana, Deodoro, and Maracanã—apart from venues for golf and rugby union, which were added to the Olympic program after the election. Football matches were held in the cities of Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Salvador and São Paulo. The proposed dates ranged from August 5 to 21 for the Olympic Games, and September 7 to 18 for the Paralympic Games.

Bid process

Rio de Janeiro's bidding process began on July 28, 2006, when the Executive Council of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB in the Portuguese acronym) met to consider the possibility of nominating a Brazilian city to host the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. This meeting was prompted by the fact that several cities in the world demonstrated interest around the election, some having already announced their bidding intention. Then a technical analysis was commissioned by COB to evaluate the conditions of the city, unveiled on August 25, 2006. A week later, on September 1, 2006, the COB's Annual Assembly decided by acclamation that Rio de Janeiro would be the Brazilian representative seeking to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016. The Assembly felt it was the only city in Brazil and South America which would possess Olympic-level facilities ready for an Olympic and Paralympic bid, a legacy of its upcoming hosting of the XV Pan American Games in 2007, later considered to be the best in history. Another positive aspect was that Rio de Janeiro could host all Olympic sports within the city limits, although the Olympic football tournament is hosted by multiple cities. The Brazilian government immediately expressed its support to the bid. Carlos Arthur Nuzman, president of COB, and César Maia, then Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, approved the decision, thus making the bid official.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially launched the bid process for the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics on May 16, 2007. All then 203 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) were invited to submit the name of a city within their jurisdiction until September 13, 2007. On September 14, the IOC recognized seven cities—Baku, Chicago, Doha, Madrid, Prague, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo—which had been put forward by their respective NOCs to bid. On October 1, 2007, the Rio de Janeiro bid committee paid the required fee of US$150,000 to the IOC and signed the Candidature Acceptance Procedure. Soon after, from October 15 to 19, Rio officials attended the 2016 Applicant cities' Seminar organized by the IOC at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, where they learnt more about technical areas that would be analyzed throughout the application process. On January 14, 2008, the seven Applicant cities returned documents, known as the Application Files, containing the answers and guarantees requested by the 2016 Candidature Acceptance Procedure, which provided to the IOC an overview of each city's project. The responses were studied by the IOC Working Group for months and served as the basis to the shortlist of Chicago, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid on June 4, 2008, becoming Candidate cities during a meeting of the IOC Executive Board at the 2008 SportAccord Convention in Athens, Greece.

Rio de Janeiro bid to host the 1936, 2004 and the 2012 Games, but failed on every occasion; missing the shortlist in the two latest attempts, while the bidding process for 1936 did not follow the current standards. For the first time in the Candidature phase, the official bid flag was raised during a ceremony held at the Palácio da Cidade (English: City's Palace) on June 23, 2008, celebrating the Olympic Day. On July 3, 2008, the Rio de Janeiro bid committee paid a fee of US$500,000 to the IOC and signed the Candidature Procedure, reconfirming its acceptance of the rules. Then, Rio officials participated in the Olympic Games Observers Program from August 8 to 24, during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China; and attended the IOC Official Debriefing of the Beijing Games from November 24 to 27, in London, United Kingdom. On February 11, 2009, the Rio de Janeiro bid committee delivered its Candidature File to the IOC in Lausanne and, eight days later, to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) in Bonn, Germany; containing the responses to the 2016 Candidature Procedure and Questionnaire, as well as guarantees and undertakings. The Candidature File had three volumes containing 568 pages of detailed answers to 300 technical questions, divided into 17 themes. Finally, on June 17, 2009, the IOC organized the 2016 Candidate Cities Briefing to 93 of its members at the Olympic Museum, being the first such meeting in its history and the most important before the election. Rio officials came out stronger after a presentation of 45 minutes, considered to be exceptional, followed by a session of 16 questions.

Throughout the campaign, the Rio de Janeiro bid committee introduced its plans to the General Assemblies of all Associations of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), making the bid's first official presentation on October 11, 2008, to the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO), in Acapulco, Mexico. On October 21, the vision was presented to the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) in Bali, Indonesia, followed by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) on November 21, in Istanbul, Turkey. On March 26, 2009, Rio officials made a praised presentation during the 2009 SportAccord Convention in Denver, United States. For the first time, a world map of the past Olympic host cities was displayed, subsequently becoming an icon of Rio's campaign due to the void in South America. On March 31, 2009, the Rio de Janeiro bid committee made its plea to the Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) in Queenstown, New Zealand; and on July 7, to the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) in Abuja, Nigeria. The bid committee also attended many sporting events, such as the Australian and European Youth Olympic Festivals, the Commonwealth Youth Games, the Asian Youth Games and the Mediterranean Games, as well as the Aquatics, Athletics, Rowing and Judo World Championships. The three-year campaign culminated with the beginning of the 13th Olympic Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark, which was officially opened in a ceremony held at the city's Opera House, and after a lunch offered by Margrethe II, Queen of Denmark, to the heads of state of the four Candidate cities at the Amalienborg Palace.

Evaluation

Rio de Janeiro was primarily evaluated during the Applicant phase, accurately on March 14, 2008, when the IOC Working Group released its report after four days of meetings, giving a weighted-average score of 6.4 to the bid. It was based on a thorough technical analysis of the projects presented on the Application File, which was developed by the Rio de Janeiro bid committee after having access to the Olympic Games Knowledge Management database as well as the official IOC Technical Manuals. The Working Group composed of several experts assessed the city's potential for staging successful Olympic Games according to eleven criteria presented in the Application File. Rio de Janeiro's highest score came from Government support, legal issues and public opinion due to the strong government commitment, and its lowest from Safety and security due to the city's chronic problems of violence. Experience in major events also yielded good scores, while a shortage in the number of required hotel rooms undermined the accommodation theme. The Working Group also gave an 8.3 score to Tokyo, 8.1 to Madrid, 7.0 to Chicago, 6.9 to Doha, 5.3 to Prague and 4.3 to Baku; being the basis for the selection to the Candidature phase. On September 18, 2008, after the shortlist which concluded the Application phase, the IOC announced the composition of its Evaluation Commission. The commission inspected the four Candidate cities under the leadership of Nawal El Moutawakel, who also chaired the Evaluation Commission for the bid process of the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

The IOC Evaluation Commission arrived in Rio de Janeiro on April 27, 2009, to assess the quality of the bid, stating that the welcoming activities prepared by the city had been the best. Unlike the first evaluation, the committee did not assign scores, but analyzed the probability of execution of the plans. During the first two days of the visit, the Evaluation Commission held internal meetings at Copacabana Palace, the host hotel. Between April 29 and 30, the Commission attended technical presentations in a large ballroom equipped with lighting and multi-media resources, where it participated in question-and-answer sessions about each of the seventeen themes presented in the Candidature File. May Day was marked by the inspectors' visits to all existing venues across the city. On May 2, 2009, the Evaluation Commission made a press conference to highlight the main points of the visit. According to El Moutawakel, the Commission was very impressed with the unity of government support, the quality of the presentations and the level of integration of the Games in the country's long-term development plan. After seven days of inspections involving 300 professionals, the thirteen members of the IOC Evaluation Commission left Rio de Janeiro on May 3, 2009, on the way to Madrid. One month before the election, on September 2, 2009, Rio officials welcomed the released of the 2016 Evaluation Commission Report. It gave a very positive assessment to the city and described the documents submitted by Rio de Janeiro as "of a very high quality".

Election