After two failed Olympic bids - being runner-up to Atlanta in 1996 and Beijing 2008 - Toronto finally wins one taking a first ballot win over Bogota and Lima for the 2015 Pan Am games.

The best thing about winning this - instead of an Olympics - is that the Toronto area will now get a ton of Federal and Provincial money to build much needed infrastructure for transit and sports facilities without all the extra billions wasted on frills that the IOC seems to demand from cities bidding on an Olympics.

So World Pride in 2014 and then the Pan Am games in 2015. Toronto is on a winning streak. Now if only one of our sports teams would go one one.

Here's a neat video that apparently was part of the Toronto presentation.

http://www.thestar.com/videozone/722143

Yay! TO has failed so many times to get a major international event (Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Expo), where other Canadian cities have succeeded (Montreal--Olympics and Expo; Vancouver--Olympics and Expo; Calgary--Olympics; Edmonton--Commonwealth Games). Finally, our turn comes. Apparently, we took some Mounties as part of our pitch... they were up against Juan Valdez, who Bogota brought to sway votes with his delicious coffee.


Of course, closer at hand we have the 2009 Yahoo! Rock Paper Scissors World Championships next week at the Steam Whistle Brewery at the foot of the CN Tower.