WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama has suggested that decisions on who hosts the Olympics are corrupt, in a wide-ranging interview that touched on Chicago's failed 2016 bid.

In an interview published late on Sunday, he recalled his 2009 travel to Copenhagen in a failed effort to get his adopted home city across the finishing line.

"Everybody thought that if I flew out there, we had a good chance of getting it, and it might be worth essentially just taking a one-day trip," Obama told New York magazine.

"Subsequently, I think we've learned that IOC's decisions are similar to Fifa's decisions: a little bit cooked," he said comparing the International Olympic Committee to football's scandalised governing body.

The loss for Chicago was seen as a political blow for Obama.

Rio eventually emerged from a crowded field to win the right to host the quadrennial Games.