Another week and another update from the Olympics, this time almost a dozen years in the future.
The International Olympic Committee announced last week that it was entering a targeted dialogue with the city of Brisbane about hosting the 2032 Summer Olympics. While it is not official that the Australian city will be hosting the Summer Olympics in 2032, it is likely that the Olympics will be returning Down Under for the first time since Sydney hosted in 2000.
As of right now, there are still no plans for the Winter Olympics in 2030 and 2034, though there are a few cities that are rumored to be in the mix, including Salt Lake City and Sapporo, Japan, both of which have hosted the Winter Olympics in the past. It is believed that most of the cities that are exploring Winter Olympics are waiting to see just how the Tokyo Olympics go this summer as well as the Beijing Winter Olympics next February go before moving forward with their bids to host.
On a personal note, last week also brought the notification that I had been approved for credentials to cover the Beijing Winter Olympics next February. I had previously received an e-mail from the Beijing Organizing Committee asking me to register for the accommodation management system to reserve media housing for the Games. I registered online for the media web portal and got all the pertinent information regarding the accommodation options in Beijing but was still waiting for the official word from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee on whether or not I had received credentials.
Once I received the official word, I filled out the accommodation request and submitted it to the proper channels. Like in each of the other three Olympics in which I've had credentials, my main criteria in finding media housing was price. Being as this endeavor is mostly self-funded, price has always been key when looking for housing. I found a few different hotels with the options that I was looking for and submitted my choices. Hopefully my request can be met with the least expensive option. Since I spend little time in my accommodations, all I really need is a bed and a bathroom.
On the Tokyo front, there hasn't been any significant updates in the last few weeks. It's inside 150 days until the start of the Summer Olympics and I keep seeing tons of commercials on NBCSN touting the return of the Olympics this summer. The one thing I did do today in regards to the Tokyo Games was fill out the request for access to the arrival and departure system.
The arrival and departure system at the Olympics allows accredited media to fill out forms ahead of time to ensure that we have proper transportation from the airport to our hotels and then in reverse when it's time to leave. We put in all our flight and accommodation information and when we show up at the airport, they are expecting a certain number of media and where we have to go and have the proper transportation ready for us. In Sochi, there was a bus that brought me from the airport to my accommodations while in Korea, there was a train from the Seoul airport to Gangneung and from there they had a van to bring me to my accommodations.
So, there is another Olympic city looking to be put in the lineup and there's officially another Olympics in my near future. Two Olympics in the course of a year will be interesting. Maybe a tad expensive, but still quite interesting.
The city of Brisbane has entered dialogue for hosting the 2032 Summer Olympics. Photo from theaustralian.com.
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