Where to start? Facilities not ready? Check. http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympi...inhabitable-two-weeks-before-opening-ceremony Crime rampant around the city? Check. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-rio-gets-worse-just-in-time-for-the-olympics Doping Scandals just before the start of the game? Check. https://www.rt.com/sport/352960-ioc-russia-rio-decision/ Share your thoughts.
I don't know what all the fuss is about this zika thingy. I had those grease fittings on my '26 Pierce Arrow!
What a farce! Russia blatantly cheats with doping and they still allow them to compete. I guess they're all afraid of the KGB.
I agree with all of this except for the "should have been" part. I know a lot of people in Chicago, all of them were really happy the bid failed. ******** the IOC, by the way.
After Athens, and Sochi, and now this, I'm amazed that anyone would bid for these any more. It takes a huge amount of resources to pull off, most of which you will never get back. I wonder if we saw what the future will hold with the 2022 Winter Olympic bids, when only China and Kazakhstan ultimately bid on the games. We saw the people of Boston basically say "hell no" when they turned down the chance to bid for 2024.
It is the same thing as with the World Cup. These mega-events are really becoming too expensive for most countries/cities to hold, and the profits of the games flow to network channels, international organizations and foreign corporations, while most of the cost and inconveniences are beared by the poor inhabitants. The question then becomes, why some countries/cities think is a good idea to bid for these events? Are we still overrating the power of sports as a way to create economic benefits? Is it a pride thing?
It's not economic benefits, it's about prestige. China has been bidding on the Olympics because they want to be recognized as a world power instead of the land of a billion dirt farmers and/or manufacturing workers that they have been up until recently. Kazakhstan is doing it because it wants people to know where it is on the map and be recognized for the economic power that it is and not just an empty wasteland of goat herders. That's why Brazil bid on the Olympics and World Cup. They were supposed to be Brazil's coming out party.. Instead they've just been highlighting its problems.
IYO, what is the logic behind Qatar or Russia bids? Sochi was disastrous but it was not as bad, it would be like bulldozing a small ski town in the Rockies and put an Olympic village there. I have not yet an opinion on WC2018, but I guess that they have stadiums and most of the cities are in the European side, so it should not be that different from Germany or France. Qatar? That is a big crapload for nothing IMHO.
Again.. It's all about prestige. Russia is trying to get back to the Soviet era in terms of global respect and Qatar wants another opportunity to show off how much money they have.
No not really. It was like taking Tampa, a nice place to visit, and putting some mountains 3 hours away and blowing snow on top of them to make them wintery. At least if you go to a ski town, you may actually find snow and winter conditions. Cross Country skiing was a joke. It was like 60 degrees during the last races. And the one thing all these locations have in common, totalitarians just moving/killing people to get things done.
Qatar was clearly a coming out party. They want to transform their country to a vacation destination on par with Dubai.
There are some pics of Ms. Solo on the intertubes where she's showing off her very own Venus flytrap.