International Olympic Committee

In more than 2 decades as Olympic Games President, Samaranch is credited with bringing the games back from the brink of financial ruin and boosting international interest. His last Olympic "hurrah" was at the Vancouver Winter Games earlier this year.

President Barack Obama pulled out all the stops to bring the 2016 Olympics to his adopted home town, Chicago. He not only personally flew to Copenhagen to lobby the International Olympic Committee, but brought his wife Michelle and Oprah Winfrey.