For an eye-opening documentary on the corruption, abuse of power of the IOC, watch this; it will make you look at the Olympics from different perspectives. I no longer look forward to the opening and closing ceremonies knowing how many poor people were displaced at that site to make it happen.
http://www.hbo.com/real-sports-with-bryant-gumbel/episodes/0/232-episode/synopsis/july-on-real-sports-with-bryant-gumbel.html
@Scipio, you hit the nail on the head.
@cbreeze, that is one of the reasons I think they ought to have a permanent Olympics facility in Greece. The Winter Games can either have another home–Switzerland?–or rotate around.
I could never figure out why most team sports don’t interest me during the Olympics but @Scipio just articulated it for me. I can follow playoffs for things like hockey with great interest but the Olympics just kind of feel like an all star game- something that’s never appealed.
But skating, gymnastics, and so on do interest me because that’s what these athletes train so hard for.
The wealthier athletes/teams rarely stay in the village. I doubt Michael Phelps does (although I think Missy Franklin did last time). The ice skaters, skiers, and hockey players don’t in the winter either. I don’t think the gymnasts do and they’d certainly fit in the beds! Most of the teams with the best athletes want their own food, chefs, trainers, quiet hours.
The basketball players (since the pros started) have never stayed in the village although they are allowed to hang out there and I read Lebron did. A lot.
and who will be the flagbearer for GB in Rio.
https://www.teamgb.com/news/andy-murray-named-as-flagbearer-for-rio-2016-opening-ceremony
I always love the athlete profiles and stories, like this one.
They are so poignant and interesting, and so much better than reading about how USA Gymnastics shielded coaches from sex abuse allegations.
Well, if the men’s BB players are staying on a cruise ship, I’m at least happy that the women players get the same accommodations. The salary difference between the top men’s and women’s players in the US makes the difference between the Ritz and Motel 6 look tiny.
I’m the most concerned for the open water swimmers. Actually quite concerned.
The sailors are apparently honing their skill at sailing around floating garbage, some of it reportedly large pieces of furniture. I wouldn’t want to be them and be dunked. I’m wondering how anyone ever goes to the beach in Rio. I thought it was famous for that. Do they just lie on the sand, and avoid going into the water?
Yes, asking swimmers to swim in toxic waters seems quite perilous to me.
The toxicity of the water is quite troubling. I feel badly for the kayakers, rowers, triathletes, etc who will be subjected to it.
I usually love watching the Olympics and have since I was a young child. My problem this year is we cut the (cable) cord 2 months ago. We can get NBC with an antenna, but can’t get the alternate channels. You need a cable log-in to be able to stream them live online. I’ll try to “borrow” S1’s cable log-in if he’s comfortable letting me do that.
We’ve been hearing about the toxic waters in Rio for a couple of years now. Which makes me wonder why they didn’t clean it up for the games. Everyone worried about the horrendous smog for Beijing in 2008, and for that matter in LA in 1984 too. But in both cases the authorities took steps to partner with local leaders and businesses to clean it up for the duration of the games. Rio has had time to do the same for its pollution problems, but now time has run out.
I think it was too toxic and longstanding to be able to clean up, plus Rio is short of resources.
I watched a program on PBS about the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It was very interesting.
cbreeze, I watched that Bryant Gumbel special the other night, and it was so depressing. I’ve loved the Olympics my whole life, but now it’s become just another money-grabbing, corrupt affair, with the IOC matching FIFA for worst international corruption ever. And the athletes are an after-thought. I won’t ever watch them with the same joy again, I fear.
One thing I have always loved is that the Olympics are where you see sports that you never ordinarily get to experience, considering how hard these athletes work year round and are under the radar for their major national and international competitions (swimming & diving, gymnastics, skating, skiing - all the skiing varieties - equestrian, wrestling, etc.). Now they still are under the radar but are getting subpar Olympic experiences while someone else (many someone else’s) profit off their backs.
there was a big article recently (I think in the Washington Post) about how the people in charge make lots of money off the Olympics and related things while the athletes get peanuts…
@NinaReilly, I feel the same way you do after watching that program. I hope more people watch it and demand change at the IOC. Norway was wise to withdraw from hosting, I hope more countries would refuse to accept what IOC demands.
It made me sick to realize that almost a quarter of a million people were forcibly displaced, their houses that their grandfathers and great-grandfather built were summarily bulldozed to make way for the Olympic stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies take place.
I don’t think I can watch the real sports show. I don’t have HBO. My D does, maybe I can get her login.
Correction: The places where the people were forcibly moved were not the stadium where the opening and closing ceremony will take place but part of the Olympic Park and its infrastructure.
Building shacks that have no value after the Games is such a waste. Park a few cruise ships, and here you have a few makeshift hotels… During the Games in Vancouver, a few such “hotels” popped up in the harbor for visitors to stay in.