Obama Farewell Salutes Power of Olympians

(ATR) The U.S. Olympic team proves any American can be President says Barack Obama.

During his final press conference as U.S. President, Obama invoked the diversity of Team USA to answer a question as to whether another African American will be elected.

Obama replied that the U.S. "killed it at the Olympics in Brazil", referring to the top of the medal table finish at the Rio 2016 Olympics, with 46 gold medals and 121 total.

Then he went on to mention the diversity of the team, highlighted by top performers Simone Biles and Michael Phelps.

"We have people here that can excel at any sport," Obama said.

"More of our medals came from women [than men], and the reason is because we had the foresight several decades, with something called Title IX, to make sure women have opportunities in sports."

"So I use that as a metaphor that we keep the opportunity open to everyone," Obama concluded.

"We’re going to have a female president, a Latino president, a Hindu president, a Jewish president and we’ll have a whole bunch of mixed up presidents that we don’t know what to call them, and that’s fine."

Obama appeared for about an hour at the White House briefing room, his final appearance to the press corps before Donald Trump becomes president January 20. After eight years in office, the event was another in a series of events this week signaling the end of the Obama era.

"We agree with President Obama comments that the diversity of Team USA is central to our success on and off the field of play," USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky tells Around the Rings.

Obama and First Lady Michelle have welcomed four different Olympic and Paralympic teams to the White House, starting in 2010 with Winter Olympians and Paralympians from Vancouver. In September the Obamas played host to the teams from Rio de Janeiro.

Obama did not attend an Olympic Games during his presidency. Vice President Joe Biden attended the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and First Lady Michelle Obama came to the 2012 Olympics in London.

Politics came into play in 2014 when neither Biden or Obama were part of the delegation to the Sochi Winter Olympics. The low level protocol delegation was regarded as a snub to Russian President Vladimir Putin and as a protest against an anti-gay law.

The Olympics dealt Obama a humbling comedown in his first year in office. He and the First Lady ventured to Copenhagen in 2009 to make personal appeals at the IOC Session on behalf of the bid from Chicago for the 2016 Games. But the IOC made the Obama hometown the first of the four cities eliminated with Rio the eventual winner.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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