News of Olympic Parks, Press and Putin

The Chicago Tribune's Washington Bureau (a.k.a. The Swamp) and other outlets report that a presidential advance team will embark to Copenhagen to "keep options open" for President Obama to speak to the International Olympic Committee. This is a tremendous boost for the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid team, for sure.

Only 11 days remain until the big vote.

In other news, in New York, Olympic gold medalist and "Dancing With The Stars" champ Shawn Johnson took to the air on Fox News yesterday, talking about her support of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Her media training skills keep improving with each interview.

Back in Chicago, this past week's Olympic headlines were capped with the opening of the new Jesse Owens Olympic Park presented by Allstate. Long-term good news for the city. Read all about it.

And speaking of Olympic parks, here's some news about the London 2012 Olympic park getting some visitors.

Even the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic team had Olympic park news this week, with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visiting some big cats with IOC member Jean-Claude Killy. Meow!