Siting permanent Olympic facilities would deprive nations of a chance to show national pride, make economic gains and, most important, make history.
Don’t deprive nations of Olympic pride
By Whitt Flora
Special to Tribune News Service
IT would be wrong to diminish the majesty and international scope of the Olympic Games by, as some are suggesting, anchoring them in Greece or on permanent sites on five continents.
The problems with this year’s Rio Games have prompted calls to stop having nations host the contests and hold them instead in permanent facilities in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa.
About these columns
This is a pro-con package on the Olympics. The question posed to the writers was: “Should the International Olympic Committee build permanent facilities for hosting the games on each continent?”
This would be a mistake. It would deprive nations of a chance to show national pride, make economic gains and, most important, make history.
The Olympics represent the ultimate opportunity to showcase a national identity on the global stage.
For example, the 1964 Tokyo Olympics marked a shining moment in Japan’s history, an occasion that restored national pride after a humiliating World War II defeat and heralded the country’s climb toward an international economic power.
Those Olympics helped rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. The bullet train connecting Tokyo and Osaka started operating just days before the games were held that October, and the core of the Metropolitan Expressway, the highway system in central Tokyo, was newly constructed. Tokyo’s public transportation network was given a major boost, while the public broadcasting system was upgraded, encouraging families to purchase color-television sets.
In Great Britain, during the 2012 Olympics, polls showed that a vast majority of British men felt a renewed sense of national pride because their nation was hosting the games.
The Olympics have also made history for reasons larger than the games themselves. During the Berlin 1936 Olympics, Hitler planned to show the world that the Aryan people were the dominant race. Jesse Owens, an African-American, proved him wrong and sealed his place in Olympic history by becoming the most successful athlete of those games.
The fact that Owens did this in, of all places, Berlin added much luster to his achievements.
Armed conflict in Hungary threatened to disrupt the 1956 Games because in November, Soviet tanks rolled into that nation to crush a heroic anti-Communist armed revolt by the vastly outnumbered and outgunned Hungarians.
Shortly thereafter, the Soviet water-polo team met the Hungarians in that obscure sport’s semifinals. Hungary got the world’s attention by winning by 4-0. A brawl ensued, and the police had to step in to prevent a riot. But again, the brave Hungarians largely prevailed.
The Olympics belong to the world, not to any single nation. Any major city that wants to foot the bill should be eligible to host them.
Whitt Flora, an independent journalist, covered the White House for The Columbus Dispatch and was chief congressional correspondent for Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine.
Quit bankrupting nations
By Tim Wendel
Special to Tribune News Service
THE Olympics are in need of a financial intervention.
While there’s nothing better in the dog days of summer than to cheer on Katie Ledecky and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, the games’ price tag for host nations has soared too high. That’s why we need to seriously consider permanent sites for the Summer and Winter Games.
Despite Brazil sliding into a self-declared “financial calamity,” the Olympics have gone on as scheduled in Rio de Janeiro.
No matter that Brazil would be better served using public money on affordable housing and clean water for its citizens rather than constructing costly new sports venues.
No matter that the final price tag is expected to be upward of $20 billion.
“When 40 percent of the homes in Brazil have no sanitation, you can’t really be spending (billions) for a show,” said Fernando Meirelles, the Oscar-nominated director who choreographed the opening ceremonies.
That’s a message that the International Olympic Committee needs to hear loud and clear.
The idea of permanent Olympic sites dates back more than three decades.
In 1984, F. Don Miller and William Simon of the U.S. Olympic Committee proposed permanent sites — one each in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa — with the Olympics alternating between these specific venues.
It may make sense for Greece, where the Olympics originated more than 3,000 years ago, to be among the permanent sites, too.
Such a change would end the insane bidding wars to host the games. Montreal, Athens and now Rio mortgaged their citizens’ future to throw a party for the rest of the world. The 2008 Summer Games in Beijing cost more than $42 billion, only to be surpassed by Sochi’s $50 billion price tag for the Winter Games. Costs will to continue to spiral upward with the impending 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. There, a new stadium will cost $2 billion alone.
The world rarely operates in a logical, equitable way. But by utilizing permanent sites, the IOC would also have a chance to polish its tarnished image. Fewer upfront costs would give officials a chance to redirect revenue to developing countries for vaccines or food assistance.
Such programs, along with goodwill visits by Olympians, would revitalize the image of the games. From the recent doping scandals to the boycotts in 1980 and 1984 to reports of the polluted water in Rio, you would think the powers that be would be eager to clean up their act.
Now’s their chance.
A graduate of Syracuse University, Tim Wendel is the author of 11 books, including “Going for the Gold” and “Summer of ’68.” He is a writer in residence at Johns Hopkins University’s Washington, D.C., campus.