Obama, who will be joined by her husband President Barack Obama on Friday when they become part of the team presenting Chicago's bid for the Games to the International Olympic Committee Session, will lobby solidly over the next 48 hours.
 

Also due in later today were Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, backing Rio de Janeiro, and King Juan Carlos and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero, supporting the Madrid bid.
 

Newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who is promoting Tokyo's cause, will also be in the Danish capital.

Michelle Obama was taken directly into the city centre where she is due to begin a series of meetings with IOC members as part of a major charm offensive that US officials will hope that will see the the Games awarded to America for the first time Atlanta in1996.

Before leaving Washington, Michelle Obama promised she would try to speak as many IOC members as possible.

She said: "I'm talking to everybody.

"That's what my schedule looks like.

"I don't think there's one person left off."

The message that Obama will hope to get across is that she feels passionate about the city she was born and raised in and is just as enthusiastic about the Olympics, having vivid memories of it when she was a child.

She said: "When the Olympics were on and the time zone worked we watched everything.

"I'm 5ft 11in.

"I didn't know that I would be 5ft 11 at the time, so I thought I could be a gymnast at one point.
 

"I still remember Nadia Comaneci with that perfect 10, she popped off that balance beam, and I knew I could do it.

"Never could.

"Legs are way too long for that."

Silva is also due to begin meeting IOC members, several of whom he has met already.
 

Barack Obama will become the first sitting US President to address an IOC session and the most high profile of a succession of leading political figures, including then British Prime Minister Tony Blair four years ago, and then Russian President Vladimir Putin two years ago, to successfully campaign for London's 2012 bid and Sochi's 2014 Winter bid respectively.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected].
 

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