CHICAGO — It may be the biggest Chicago road trip since the Blues Brothers hit town: The International Olympic Committee's tour of the spots where the city wants to hold the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Members of the IOC inspection team on Sunday were driven to existing facilities, like Soldier Field, and to the sites of those still on the drawing board, like the Olympic Stadium.

It is arguably the most important day of their nearly weeklong visit, which ends Tuesday, for the simple reason that it gives organizers the chance to drive home a key point of their bid — that Chicago's Olympics would be a compact affair.

"Today is the day we can really show that," said United States Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel. "The significance of today is that it's an opportunity not only to present plans, but to show those plans - bring them to life."

The tour ended with a video greeting from Michael Jordan, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, at the city's United Center, where Jordan played for the Chicago Bulls.

"The memory of standing as a representative of the United States in the Olympics was one of the proudest moments of my life," Jordan told IOC members as children played basketball nearby.

Chicago is the first stop for the inspection team, which will also visit Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, and Tokyo before making a final decision in October on which city is awarded the games.

On a cold, rainy and windy day that ended with snow and seemed more conducive to pitching the Winter Games, the IOC saw just how close together most events are to each other, the proposed Olympic Village and cultural spots like the Field Museum and Millennium Park.

The bus took the IOC team down Lake Shore Drive, with organizers reminding them that just to their east on Lake Michigan would be events such as rowing. To the west was Grant Park, the site of archery as well as Buckingham Fountain - the proposed startin g point for the marathon.

A couple minutes later the bus passed McCormick Place, a massive 2.5 million square foot convention center where 11 Olympic and eight paralympic events would be held and would house a training facility, broadcast center and press center.

Their first stop was just to the south, where organizers are proposing building the Olympic Village for 16,000 athletes on property where there is now a nearly shuttered hospital.

There, organizers said, they were greeted by Mayor Richard Daley and Greg Louganis, one of the greatest divers in Olympic history.

Next, they looped back to McCormick Place, passing a rhythmic gymnastics demonstration in the concourse on their way to exhibitions of other sports.

"I hope they were impressed," said 12-year-old Jazzy Kerber, of suburban Chicago, one of the gymnasts. "I hope they saw Chicago is a really good city...."

Later, as the sun peeked briefly through threatening clouds, the delegatio n visited Washington Park on the South Side, where the main Olympic Stadium would be built. To show the outline of the proposed stadium, 205 volunteers held up flags for each of the Olympic nations around its perimeter.

Although demonstrators opposed to the games had threatened to set up a tent city of the homeless in Washington Park to coincide with the visit, no tents were visible from where the IOC members stood.

In fact, greeting IOC members on the South Side were members of the city council whose wards on that side of the city are largely minority, and who voiced their support for the games and the benefits they would bring to the community.

"Unlike other cities which cleared whole sections so they could build the Olympic village and venues, we're not doing that," said Alderman Toni Preckwinkle.

Further, she said, "There is going to be substantial affordable housing in the residential development that follows the Olympics."

By the end of th e day, the IOC stopped at 12 Olympic sites, including the northernmost Chicago venue - the proposed site of the tennis stadium in Lincoln Park.

Throughout the tour, IOC members came face to face with some of the greatest names in Olympic history. At a museum on the city's South Side near the proposed Olympic Stadium, they met Hawai'i's Bryan Clay, the gold medal winner of the decathlon in Beijing.

Also in Chicago were gold medal-winning gymnast Bart Conner, and his wife, Nadia Comaneci, a legendary gymnast who received the first ever perfect scores of 10 as she won three gold medals for Romania in the 1976 games.

They said the IOC can't help but be impressed that the vast majority of athletes will be living in a village within 15 minutes of where they will train and compete.

"That's huge for the athletes," said Conner, who grew up in the Chicago area. "The athletes biggest concern is reserving energy so they can be at their best on the day of competition."

< P>Conner said organizers sought his advice and that of other athletes about venue location, and it shows.

Comaneci said one message she has for the IOC, which organizers have also been trumpeting, is that Chicago is the home of people from all over the world - meaning it will be comfortable for athletes from all over the world.

"From athletes' point of view, when you come to a place where people speak your language...it's very convenient for the athlete," she said, adding the city has a large number of residents from her native Romania.

As in previous days, what the IOC thinks of all this is a mystery. Organizers say they will not talk to the press until the final day of their visit, and will not even say what questions they're asking.

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On the Net:

International Olympic Committee: http://www.olympic.org

Chicago 2016: http://www.chicago2016.org/