Prague - While the sports world concentrates on the next Summer Olympics in Beijing, the countries wishing to organize the Olympic Games in the future, including the Czech Republic, are looking further ahead.
London - having beaten its biggest rival, Paris in a dramatic vote - will host the next Olympics four years after Beijing.
That hampers the chances of another European city being selected to organize the 2016 Olympics. The last time two Olympics in a row were hosted by the continent was more than half a century ago (1948 London, 1952 Helsinki).
Prague also makes no secret about considering 2020 more advantageous for it chances to host Summer Olympics.
Betting on certainty
With the deadline for applying now officially expired Prague only has six rivals to beat: Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, Doha, Baku and Tokyo.
At this moment, Chicago is the leading rival and has the biggest chance. To hold the Olympics in America is betting on certainty - no problems are expected to hamper building the infrastructure or organizing the games themselves.
Polls say more than eighty per cent of people in Chicago support the idea of the games in their city.
The only thing that could challenge the application is the fact that USA was hosting the Summer Games relatively recently - in Atlanta in 1996. The same factor could go against Madrid as Barcelona was hosting the Olympics in 1992.
Rio's problem: crime rate
Rio de Janeiro would love to become the first South American Olympics city. Games have never been held there, and the only Spanish or Portuguese speaking country in the Western hemisphere to organize the Olympics was Mexico in 1968.
The main argument against Rio's application is its dismal traffic situation and the crime rate that already gives headaches to regular tourists.
On the other hand, crime was also quoted as a reason not to hold the football World Cup in South Africa, unsuccessfully - the championship will be taking place there in the end.
Another region with no experience in hosting the Olympics so far is the Middle East, so the capital of Qatar Doha would be a first should its bid succeed.
Qatar is a small state with enormous revenue from oil and gas, and the Emir of Qatar is trying to give his tiny country as high a profile as possible through various means, such as organizing Asian Games last year.
It is questionable, though, whether Qatar is not too small a country to hold the Olympics - for instance, whether it would be able to create enough accommodation space for the visitors. There are only 800 000 inhabitants, which means that the number of visitors could easily get higher than the number of residents.
Olympics in the desert?
Weather doesn't play in Qatar's favour either. In summer, the heat is murderous: day temperatures do not fall under 45 degrees Celsius. That means the Games would have to take place in October which might not please everybody.
The bets were on Dubai from the neighbouring United Arab Emirates anyway - but the city did not apply in the end.
Baku in Azerbaijan seems to be an outsider in the running. Thanks to oil fields, the country counts to those more prosperous economically among the fifteen former Soviet Union republics. It remains to be seen though whether it will be enough to get the carte blanche to organize the Olympics.
Baku's victory would definitely surprise everybody.
The last of the candidates is Tokyo which was already hosting the Olympics in 1964. The city would definitely ensure the Games without a hitch, but a major drawback to its bid is the fact that the next year Games will be taking place in East Asia too.
Among all of these speculations there is one certainty: the decision on the hosting City will be made by the International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen in October 2009.
And only then we will know where the center of the sports world's gravity will be when the Olympic year 2016 finally comes.
