A freakish event of nature?  

Apparently the experts don't think Sunday's marathon fiasco will affect Chicago's 2016 bid for the olympics. And I've seen a number of bloggers come to the same conclusion, either because the marathoners at the Olympic are better trained or because the Chicago Marathon is a private event.

But I don't see how the IOC could not consider this incident. The problems at the marathon this week were about poor planning and organization more than they were about heat, and the Olympics are one of the biggest organizational challenges you could put to a city. And while it is true that the marathon is a private event, it's also probably the highest profile sporting event the city hosts, and level of city cooperation must be very high -- there was a city police officer on every other block. But the city wasn't prepared. The trains were at a standstill and weren't used to move stranded runners. There was insufficient water on hand. And as I mentioned before, the police didn't communicate effectively or consistently.

Here's a disturbing paragraph from the Chicagoist article I linked to the other day:

2007 registration opened in January, when most of us have no clue whether we can spend all summer training. But by May or June, runners can enter with confidence, not on a whim. Organizers cited this year's field at 45,000, bigger than New York's (38,000+) and London’s (36,000+) -- and those are larger cities with more resources. Offer quality over quantity and cap the field at 30,000.