Chicago's stunning failure to win the 2016 Olympics dealt a personal blow to President Barack Obama, who had lent his hometown his global political prestige to boost its dream of hosting the Games.

Obama and wife Michelle had thrown themselves into the fight for the sporting extravaganza, with the president making a last-minute overnight dash to Copenhagen to lobby the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Chicago's bid.

But his intervention was in vain, as fancied Chicago tumbled in the first round of IOC voting, and Rio de Janeiro won the prize, over Madrid and Tokyo. "The president is disappointed as you might imagine," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters on the presidential aircraft. "He feels obviously proud of his wife for the presentation that she made."

"The president would never shy away from traveling anywhere, talking to anyone about this country. He's enormously proud of this effort that was made," he said.