Barack Obama remarks on the 2016 Summer Olympics

How's it going Chicago? It's a good time to be in Chicago. White Sox are winning; Cubs are winning; and Chicago's gonna win the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics. And your senator, he's winning too.

I am gonna be very brief. This was an unscheduled event, but I wanted to come by because Mayor Daley, Maggie Daley, Pat Ryan, the Chicago Olympic Committee, Valerie Jarrett – all the people that have helped to put this bid together – have performed an extraordinary service, because what they've recognized is that bringing the Olympics to Chicago will be a capstone of the success that we've had over the last couple of decades in transforming Chicago to become not just a great American city, but a great world city.

Not just – not just a city that – that works, but a city that inspires; a city that is creative; a city that is about change; a city that's about the 21st Century; a city that reflects the diversity that is the strength of America. A city that – that recognizes that, although we come together from different walks of life, different paths – we've got different stories, we've got different histories – that ultimately we share the common values and common ideals of hard work and excellence and determination and a belief in each other. That we have obligations to each other, that we come together, and we can accomplish great things that we can't accomplish individually.

And it is that same spirit that the Olympics are all about. So, I just want you to know, in the interest of full disclosure, I only live two blocks away from – from where the Olympics are gonna kick off in 2016. And so I'm just gonna be able to walk over there – I might have to rent out my house, I don't know how much it's gonna be worth. And I also, in the interest of full disclosure, have to let you know that, in 2016, I'll be wrapping up my second term as President.

So I can't think of a better way then to be marching into Washington Park – alongside Mayor Daley; alongside Rahm Emanuel; alongside Dick Durbin; alongside Valerie Jarrett – as President of the United States, and announcing to the world: let the Games begin!