The odds haven't changed much in the 13 months we've been handicapping the race to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. (Check out our previous editions here and here.) It's still Chicago, Rio and everyone else. With the IOC's vote on Friday, Fourth-Place Medal will take an in-depth look this week at each of the four bid cities before presenting our final prediction at the end of the week, hours before the announcement. On Monday we tackled Chicago. Yesterday, Madrid. Today we look at the co-favorite, Rio de Janeiro.

Pros: Olympics have never been held in South America ... IOC fancies itself as a catalyst for change, and Rio provides best opportunity to reinvent a city ... passionate support from its citizenry ... time zone is only one hour ahead of New York, which will be beneficial to IOC in upcoming U.S. television negotiations ... Richard Daley.

Cons: The proposed $14.4 billion budget is more than double that of any other bid city ... crime ... little pre-existing infrastructure ... 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi are already a question mark ... the recent cancellation of a World Cup swimming event ... city also hosting 2014 World Cup.

Biggest plus: Going to Rio de Janeiro makes a statement, and the IOC is fond of sending such messages (think Beijing). The passion behind the bid and the opportunity to bring the world stage to Brazil is the greatest thing Rio's bid has going for it.

Biggest minus: Rio doesn't have a huge problem, it just has lots of medium ones. The worst case scenario for the city is that IOC members become hung up on all the things that could go wrong.

Famous schmoozers: Pele, President Luis Inacio Lula de Silva, Ronaldo.

Twitter-length summary: Affecting change is what the IOC loves best. Whether they love it enough to take a risk on Rio will be the decisive factor in Friday's vote.