Monday, August 01, 2016

The Olympics doesn't work for cities. It's time for a new model...

“The Olympic Games in Rio are an unnatural disaster,” the New York Times recently declared. As someone who has spent two decades studying and writing about the ancient and modern Olympics, I’m not surprised by the pronouncement. It simply fulfills a prophecy many foretold in the months (and years) leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games.

While Rio has its own particular challenges, such as the Zika virus, a number of other problems have recently begun to plague all Olympic hosts, ranging from skyrocketing costs to worries about the environmental impact of hasty, massive construction projects.

It seems as though the Olympics have become too big, too costly and too complicated to be hosted by a single city. The solution? The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the governing body for the Olympic Games, should hold competitions for each different sport in a different global city.

 For an international event that, traditionally, has been so tied to celebrating the history and accomplishments of one city, this may sound far-fetched. But the world has changed in fundamental ways since the IOC organised its first set of games in the late 19th century. Today, a “decentered” games is one of the only ways to ensure local populations in democratic countries will support a bid to host the Olympics. And if the IOC is willing to leverage recent advances in technology, it could actually make the Olympics more compelling and more effective at fulfilling its mission. Full story...

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