Sometimes, now that the busy fall season has drawn to a close, I find myself with a little free time in the office on a Monday or Tuesday and I tend to get drawn down rabbit holes. Mostly, my rabbit holes involve the Olympics, in one form or another.
This probably isn't much of a surprise, but given the postponement of the 2020 Summer Games until next summer as well as the next Winter Olympics, which will take place in 2022 in Beijing, China, I spend a lot of time reading updates and checking in on any new information coming out from the International Olympic Committee or any of the host organizations. For whatever reason, I like to read many of the documents that were presented when the different cities were making their bids for the Olympics. It's interesting to see what the cities were proposing when they made their bids and how they envisioned the Olympics playing out in their city.
What's even more interesting about these documents are the proposals from the cities that were not selected. The most interesting ones I've seen have been for Almaty, Kazakhstan and Stockholm-Are, Sweden. Almaty made a bid to host the 2022 Games, which went to Beijing and Stockholm-Are made a bid to host the 2026 Games, which were awarded to Milan-Cortina, Italy. While there is no guarantee that I am going to get to any of the future Olympics, it's cool to check out where I might be going but it's even more interesting to look at places that won't be hosting. And then, The Amazing Race did an episode in Almaty a few weeks ago, which sparked my interest in that city again.
This morning, my rabbit hole was the Milan-Cortina web site, looking at some of the plans they have in place for those Games. This truly looks like it will be one of the most photogenic Olympics in recent years. Sochi, PyeongChang and Beijing aren't exactly hot beds of winter sports, so while it was incredible to see those parts of Russia and Korea, it didn't feel like a real winter sports atmosphere. Milan-Cortina will be using the famous ski courses of the Alps to host alpine, Nordic, biathlon and other snow-based events. To me, there isn't much more of a classic winter setting than the Alps and I anticipate some incredible shots on NBC in six years.
What's also different about the Milan-Cortina location is the fact that the mountain venues and the indoor city venues are not terribly close. In Sochi and PyeongChang, much was made about them being some of the most compact Winter Olympics ever. Most of the venues were within two hours of each other, at the most. Beijing has announced a high speed rail that will connect the downtown venues with the snow-based venues in the mountains outside the city, making the travel time fairly similar to Sochi and PyeongChang. However, a simple look at Milan and Cortina, two of the main areas for the 2026 Games, shows that they are more than four hours apart. And, there are two other venue areas that are a few hours outside of Milan, where the indoor venues are mostly located. I believe there will be some updates in the next six years to possibly cut the travel time down.
Anyways, Monday's rabbit hole was fun. Who knows what tomorrow's might bring.
This is one of my favorite pictures from PyeongChang, showing just how close the sliding center (in the foreground) is to the ski jumping center (in the background).
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