The IOC really, really wanted these Games to be in Oslo. That was obvious to just about everyone. That's the main reason why the IOC was so upset when Oslo cancelled its bid. Oslo blew the competition out of the water in every technical report that was released while it was still a candidate.
But, in lieu of a picturesque Games in Norway, a winter sports mecca, we're stuck with either Almaty, Kazakhstan or Beijing. And as the report showed, the IOC isn't enamored with its choices. The report is designed to highlight the technical strengths of each bid, but in this case, it showed the glaring weaknesses attached to both potential host cities. The IOC's not going to have an easy choice on its hands, and I don't mean that in a good way.
Beijing is considered a marginal favorite right now, but their biggest problem is a pretty serious one. There's no snow! This is an actual picture of Beijing's proposed alpine skiing venue that was taken in January:
As you can see, there isn't any of that white stuff that's kinda necessary to hold outdoor events. They've proposed to handle said issue by making artificial snow, which is actually a pretty common practice. However, artificial snow is usually used to add more to what's already there. Not to BE the snow! And they'd only put the fake stuff down for the actual field of play. How terrible will it look on TV that there's no snow on the ground during the "Winter" Olympics?! It could be even worse during the Paralympics, which are always in March and the temperatures are going to be higher.
Another concern they noted about Beijing, which I found very interesting, was the fact that China doesn't have much of a history with winter sports. That, the report concluded, could have a negative impact on the athlete experience. Not to mention severely affecting attendance. They had trouble selling tickets to some events during the 2008 Beijing Games, and China is one of the dominant nations in the Summer Olympics. How many of those billion people would actually care enough to go out and watch cross country skiers from Norway and Germany in the middle of February?
While the IOC didn't seem to have a problem with the 125-mile distance between the mountain venues in Zhangjiakou and the ice venues in Beijing, they did express some worry about the travel time between the two areas.
One of the biggest things noted, though, which I think is a huge red flag, is Beijing's proposal to have three athletes' villages. Ask any athlete who's been to an Olympics, and they'll tell you some of the best moments from the experience take place in the village. Three separate villages would take away some of that camaraderie and potentially make the athletes at those distant mountain venues feel very isolated from not just the rest of the athletes, but the Olympics themselves. The Albertville Games were heavily criticized for this. Their goal in 1992 was to spread the Olympics throughout all of those Alpine villages in the Savoie region and it backfired. The athletes felt like they were competing in all different World Championships instead of the Olympics.
My preference has long been Almaty, which has nothing to do with the technical aspects of either bid. It's because I don't think a city should be awarded the Olympics twice only 14 years apart. Especially since it would be one of each 14 years apart. Also, with Korea and Japan already hosting in 2018 and 2020, Beijing 2022 would be three straight in the Far East. Have the Olympics somewhere else in the world! Please!
Almaty's bid has plenty of potential issues, too, but theirs seem a bit more manageable. There aren't enough hotel rooms. Almaty's hosting the 2017 Winter Universiade, so they're already working on that. There are also concerns about the economy, which is very oil-dependent, and some venue construction. Specifically, the proposed bobsled/luge track might not be ready until November 2020. That's only 16 months before the Games, which might not be enough time to sufficiently test the venue and make any necessary improvements.
There are also some strengths of the Almaty bid that did stand out in the report. The biggest one, in direct contrast to Beijing, is that natural snow won't be a problem. Ditto about the winter sports history. Some of Kazakhstan's greatest athletes were Winter Olympians for the Soviet Union. They also have an incredibly compact bid, so there won't be the crazy travel time to get from one venue to the other, improving the experience for both the athletes and the fans. It would also serve Almaty's post-Olympic legacy well.
Public support for both bids is high, which is perhaps the biggest takeaway we can get from the IOC Evaluation Commission report. The bid has 88 percent support in Beijing, while Almaty's bid has 85 percent support. So, we're not going to see one of these cities win the Games by default. But when it comes to actually choosing a winner, it looks like instead of the best candidate, the IOC members will be deciding between the lesser of two evils when it comes time to vote on July 31.
No comments:
Post a Comment