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Not long before Barack Obama addressed the International Olympic Committee to persuade them to give the 2016 Olympics to his home town of Chicago, a gridlock created by his presence in Copenhagen saw a bus carrying IOC members held up for an hour and half.
The members arrived at the conference hall less than pleased with this particular Obama effect.
Nobody knows how many of them in that bus were responsible for the tremendous snub they later delivered the US President but the member who told me the story had a real edge in his voice as he added: "He may be the leader of the free world but that does not mean he can behave like God.
"Because of his five-hour presence in this town traffic was snarled up, flights in and out of Copenhagen were delayed. All he told us: give me the Olympics because I live just down the road from where it will be staged. He did not even stay for the vote, or mix with the members, that was very disrespectful."
Now this may be an extreme view, but in the post-mortem on the 2016 decision the Obama factor has emerged as making perhaps the most telling contribution to Chicago being sensationally dumped in the first round.
There were others, such as the bad blood between the United States Olympic Committee and the Olympic movement.
But Obama's performance is not only being compared unfavourably with President Lula of Brazil - who hobnobbed with IOC members before the vote, then shed copious tears as Rio became the first south American city to host the games - but even Tony Blair.
The Blair effect is held to be largely responsible for London beating the favourite Paris to secure the 2012 Games. As so often that came about partly by accident.
The 2005 vote in Singapore was held on the eve of the G8 summit in Gleneagles.
Blair could not be at the IOC session and get back to Glenagles in time so he and his advisers, led by bid leaders Seb Coe and Keith Mills, decided on a clever wheeze: go to Singapore for a few days before the vote, meet IOC members individually and then leave just before the vote pleading high state matters.
It worked like a dream. The 40-odd members he met were charmed, while the rest appreciated he had gone all that way to court them.
Two years later Vladmir Putin used Blair's campaign to get Sochi, a rank outsider, the 2014 Winter Games.
Obama's performance ranks with President Chirac who jetted in and out of Singapore and received the same raspberry as Obama.
That modern political leaders seek the Olympics shows how sport has changed. Victorians used exhibitions to advertise national glory.
Now expos pass unnoticed, while hosting Olympics proclaim a nation's first-class status.
But to get your country into this new Premier League you need to charm a club whose elections are more like those of a local golf club.
And while the members of this self-elected club range from royalty to associates of former dictators, all of them see the Olympics as their personal property and are fiercely protective of it.
They have converted the business end of the Games into a McDonald's-style franchise with elaborate rules such as how high the athletes living quarters can be.
Obama and his advisers just did not understand all this.
But while many in the Olympics are glad they have taught Obama a lesson they are also fearful of the American wrath that may descend on their club.
Reader views (5)
Obama is the President of Peace. That was a extraordinary snub. To which I was shocked by. Shame on the IOC and their ego driven members. So they had to wait in traffic.
- Alvin Son, London, UK, 06/10/2009 08:15
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In all fairness, Brazil should benefit from the equal opportunity, something that Pres Obama is familiar w/. Moreover the IOC probably were not convinced about Pres Obama's speech since his apologetic tone about the U.S. is still fresh in their minds. He needs to be consistent, instead of singing different tunes to different audience everytime.
- Maria Elizabeth Embry, California USA, 06/10/2009 03:22
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The IOC did us and Chicago a big favour. Now the world won't have to listen to another self-regarding speech by this narcissist POTUS, and Chicago won't be stuck with billions of dollars of tax-payers' losses like London will in 2012.
- Stephen Rothbart, Prague Czech Republic, 05/10/2009 17:48
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i could not agree more. As soon as president Obama pitched up, I thought UH oh Chicago has lost the bid!
- Liz, London, 05/10/2009 14:36
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The arrogance of the IOC is breath-taking. Could they not at least express some gratitude to the local populations and governments who stage and pay for their parties?
- Bloke, Lambeth, 05/10/2009 12:52
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