Mastandrea happy to do her part
The last time Linda Mastandrea was this vested in the Olympic Games, she was in them.
The 43-year-old Chicagoan was born with cerebral palsy and tires easily -- to the point where she needs to use a wheelchair for anything beyond walking short distances.
A sports lover, she found a passion playing wheelchair basketball while attending the University of Illinois. Somehow, that morphed into a love of running, and before she knew it, she was a sprinter in the 1992 and 1996 Paralympic Games.
"That was a really great experience," Mastandrea said of her involvement in wheelchair track, which netted her a Paralympic gold medal in the 200-meter dash and a silver in the 100-meter dash. "Then, this opportunity came up and I was like, 'Wow. I never thought I would be involved in sports this way.' "
Mastandrea has gone from being an Olympic athlete to an Olympic organizer. She is part of Chicago 2016 -- a collection of thousands of full-time staffers and volunteers who are working diligently to bring the 2016 Summer Games to Chicago.
On Tuesday, a few of them took a variety of questions about the bid process from an audience of about 50 members of the Chicago chapter of Women in Sports and Events. WISE is a career networking group for women in the sports and entertainment industry.
"I was really pleased with all the thoughtful and interesting questions we got about the bid process and what we're doing," Mastandrea said. "It makes you realize how amazing it is that we could potentially be a part of making history."
Mastandrea was chosen to be the organization's vice president of sport and accessibility. She'll play a key role in developing plans for the 2016 Paralympics, which will also be part of Chicago's bid since the host city of the Olympics also hosts the Paralympics in the same year.
"Since I was an athlete myself, I talked to the (WISE audience) about the athlete perspective and the things that are important to athletes in the Games," Mastandrea said. "I correlated that to what Chicago has to offer.
"We've got a fantastic plan for the athletes. Our (Olympic) village plan is compact, it's easily accessible for the athletes, and it's on the lake. We just have a great city to offer."
Mastandrea and her Chicago 2016 teammates will next have to convince the International Olympic Committee of that. In January, they, along with the other six cities vying for the bid, will make a presentation. The committee will then cut the list of candidates down to four. By October 2009, the IOC will announce its selection for the 2016 host city.
The other candidates are Baku (Azerbaijan), Doha (Qatar), Madrid, Prague, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
"We're up against some fine cities, and it's going to be a good, solid competition," Mastandrea said. "I can't guarantee anything, but I think we have an excellent chance because we've got an awfully committed group here and we have the mayor (Richard Daley) solidly behind us, which is extremely important.
"We've just got a solid bid in place, and we're all working extremely hard every day to make this happen."
At the moment, the members of Chicago 2016 are busy getting ready for the World Boxing Championships, which will take place in Chicago Oct. 23 through Nov. 3 at the UIC Pavilion.
It's a coincidence that Chicago is hosting the event, an Olympic qualifier, at the same time it is bidding for the Olympics. But organizers say that it could work to the city's advantage.
"This is a wonderful opportunity for Chicago to show the world our love of sport," said Kimberly Meyer, who also spoke at the WISE event.
She left a marketing job in Chicago to become a senior bid director for the United States Olympic Committee. Once Chicago earned the United States' Olympic bid, she and many other members of the USOC began working in conjunction with the Chicago 2016 movement.
"This will give people here a chance to come out and support an international event," Meyer said. "There's a lot that goes into it. We're going to have athletes from between 120 and 130 countries here, all of their coaches, doctors, trainers and families. It's a pretty massive event."
And the perfect primer for the Olympics.
The Olympics will obviously involve much more legwork and planning, but the payoffs could be monumental.
According to studies that were compiled after the 1996 Summer Games, Atlanta saw a $10 billion impact in its local economy from jobs, tourism and development.
"Hosting the Olympics will also show a city in a whole new light," Mastandrea said. "People still associate Chicago with Al Capone, or Michael Jordan. Hosting an Olympics would bring Chicago to a different level. It would give us a whole new presence internationally."