ATHENS, Greece -- Four cities were picked as finalists Wednesday for the 2016 Olympics, setting the stage for a high-profile bidding contest between candidates from the United States, South America, Europe and Asia.
Making the IOC shortlist were Chicago; Madrid, Spain; Tokyo; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Eliminated from the race were Doha, Qatar; Prague, Czech Republic; and Baku, Azerbaijan.
The final field was selected by the International Olympic Committee executive board.
The big four -- Chicago, Madrid, Rio and Tokyo -- had all been virtually assured of advancing to the final stage. The main issue had been whether Doha would also make the cut.
"It's a very competitive field," Chicago Mayor Richard Daley said. "The competition begins now."
In the end, Doha was left out even though it tied for third with Chicago and was ahead of Rio in an IOC evaluation report assessing the overall technical merits of the bids.
The IOC said Doha's proposal to hold the Olympics in October, rather than July or August, to avoid the searing summer heat was the decisive factor.
The board "unanimously decided not to grant this exception as it conflicts with the international sporting calendar and would therefore be bad for the athletes and for sports fans," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. "It would disrupt athletes' training programs and overload the sports schedule at an already busy time of the year.
"Today the executive board felt it would be a disservice to Doha to take them into the next round," she said.
There were signs that the IOC board had been locked in debate about whether to include the Qatari bid. The announcement of the short list was delayed by nearly half an hour, and IOC president Jacques Rogge did not appear, leaving the duties to Davies.
"All the bids were of a very high standard," Rogge said later in a separate IOC statement. "It is a tribute to the health of the Olympic Movement that the field was so strong. I congratulate the candidate cities and I hope that those cities which were unsuccessful this time have benefited from the process."
The finalists now advance to a 16-month race that will culminate on Oct. 2, 2009, with a secret ballot by the full IOC at its session in Copenhagen, Denmark.
