Ex-IOC executive criticises Chicago bid effort

Chicago's bid leaders "totally missed the plot" ahead of the city's shock first-round elimination in voting to pick the 2016 Summer Games host, said a former International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive.

Chicago's early exit showed it never connected with the Olympic voters, said former IOC marketing director Michael Payne.

Payne was a senior strategy adviser to Rio de Janeiro which ended up being selected by IOC members as the host city in Denmark in October, winning the final round against Madrid by 66 votes to 32.

"It was a surprise to watch a... legendary political machine so finely tuned and experienced as Chicago, who prided themselves, as no other US city, on their ability to manage elections, telling people how they are going to vote before they even approach the polling station, so totally miss the plot," Payne said.

Chicago, which had been considered the front-runner, was eliminated despite lobbying by US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

Several IOC delegates, Chicago bid executives and analysts blamed errors by the US Olympic Committee (USOC) including a failure to build relations with delegates.

"As the 18-vote first round so clearly showed, Chicago totally failed at the very first rule of elections; they never really understood the electorate and how to communicate with them," said Payne.