It's been more than two months since my last blog post. Obviously, this blog focuses on the Olympics and my experiences covering the Games as a local sports reporter. During the time between the Olympics, most of my life is devoted to covering high school sports across the Lakes Region of New Hampshire and north through Franconia Notch.
That job keeps me more than busy, with games just about every day and tons of stories to be written. The past few months have been filled with trips to baseball, softball, lacrosse, tennis and track competitions all around the state. While there has been nothing that is comparable to the Olympics, in many ways, my normal life is much busier than the two or three weeks that I spend in foreign countries every couple of years.
However, this week there were a couple of noteworthy Olympic announcements and I found them both to be interesting in a few ways.
The first announcement was the 800-day mark to the Paris Olympics in the summer of 2024. I have yet to make a decision as to whether I want to apply for credentials for the next Summer Olympics. If I had never been to Paris, I think it would have been a no-brainer for me to take this chance to go to these Olympics just to see the city. However, back in 2001-2002, I spent a few days in the city and saw many of the famous sights. That being said, the city has changed a lot and I am sure it would still be pretty cool to see it again.
Adding to that was the announcement made last year that the Paris opening ceremonies were going to take place on the river in the middle of the city, making it the most unique opening ceremonies in Olympic history. How can you not see that if you have the chance? I have to say I am intrigued and all the hype put out there by Paris 2024 has me leaning toward applying for those credentials when that opportunity comes around next year.
The other announcement was an article I read on the Olympic web site about the usage of former Olympic venues. I have always been interested in what happens to many of the venues that are used in the Olympics. Perhaps the most famous photos of former facilities is that of the sliding center in Sarajevo, which was badly damaged in the Bosnian war in the years following those 1984 Olympics.
The report, commissioned by the IOC, found that 85 percent of all permanent venues used in the Olympics since 1896 and 92 percent of the permanent venues used for the Olympics in the 21st century still remain in use. A couple key points from the report state that, the percentage of new permanent venues (those built for the Games) and existing permanent venues (those which already existed when the host city/territory was selected to host the Games) that are still in use is similar (87 and 83 percent respectively), 87 percent of the complex venues, such as stadiums, Olympic Villages, swimming pools, velodromes, ski jumping hills, sliding centers and ice hockey stadiums, are still in use and the proportion of temporary venues has evolved over time. These account for 16 (early 20th century), nine (mid-20th century), seven (late 20th century), and 14 percent (21st century) of venues respectively. Of the 15 percent of permanent venues not in use, the majority were unbuilt or demolished for a variety of reasons: some reached their end of life, some were destroyed during a period of war or in accidents, while others gave way to new urban development projects. Only 35 venues – or four percent of all 817 permanent venues – are closed, inactive or abandoned.
That is pretty impressive and the number is much higher than I expected. Obviously, many of the venues that are used for the Olympics are temporary venues, constructed for the Olympics with the anticipation of being returned to their former use. The most prominent one for me was the Jeongseon Alpine Center in Korea, which was carved out of the mountains outside PyeongChang, but was dismantled and returned to its forested state when the Olympics ended.
The story is available here: https://olympics.com/ioc/news/new-report-shows-85-per-cent-of-all-permanent-olympic-venues-still-in-use?fbclid=IwAR1MnIssMoR73qvqxLKE6ANi9TuV3Hrv-UFAQVltMq1VdRsLNN9mPESeuok
So, there's an update on things, both Olympic-wise and otherwise. Soon enough it will be time to start thinking about those Paris Olympics.
