Olympic rankings ... Part three

Near the end of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, I offered up my rankings for the three Olympic experiences I had under my belt at that point. I updated the rankings after my fourth experience in Beijing and now it's time to put Paris in the mix.

Transportation

Paris PyeongChang, Sochi, Beijing, Tokyo

I am putting Paris first in this category because of the very efficient, clean and manageable public transport system that we used. There were fewer shuttle buses, but they were needed less with the option of using the stellar Metro system. Tokyo was last on this list because of the one hub to get anywhere. Beijing also had the one hub within the city, but there was another hub located near the alpine venue and there were buses operating between venues in certain places, which was convenient. Beijing touted the high speed train as a plus, and to get to the Zhangjiakou (biathlon, freestyle skiing, XC skiing, ski jumping), it was great, but to get to Yanqing (alpine, sliding) it wasn't as efficient. The long distances between the venue clusters was also not conducive to people trying to see many things. PyeongChang led this category up until this summer for its very efficient system.

 

Food

Beijing, PyeongChang, Paris, Tokyo, Sochi

I put Paris third here, mainly because of the few options that we had in the media center and the venues. Paris pushed the vegan options a lot in the venues and media center and there weren't tons of great options. That being said, it beats Tokyo because we could get out and about in the city to eat where we wanted to if we wanted to. Tokyo did a good job in incorporating food that just about everyone could eat and the same could be said for Beijing. The Main Media Center dining hall featured a lot of choices (including the now infamous robot-delivered entrees) with something for everyone. In the mountain media center, there was a restaurant with a great buffet and a Pizza Hut. And the venue media centers featured a couple of decent options. Obviously, we couldn't venture outside the Olympic zone to try other places, there was plenty of chances to find food that was palatable, even to me. Sochi’s one saving grace was the McDonald’s in the media center, while PyeongChang pulled in second for its incredible media dining hall that featured just about anything you could want.

Lodging

Tokyo, Beijing, Sochi, PyeongChang, Paris

Paris is last. This was the smallest hotel room I have ever stayed in with the smallest bathroom. I expected no air conditioning and a very limited breakfast and that's what I got. I book hotels based mostly on price, so this is on me. Tokyo got the slight edge here. The advantage of staying in existing hotels is that we get the amenities of those hotels. My hotel was not a five-star resort by any stretch of the imagination, but they served a solid breakfast, I had a dedicated internet connection for just my room, they gave us a cleaning schedule so we knew when housekeeping would be in our rooms and the bed was comfortable. Beijing was much the same. My hotel was an upgrade in many regards, with a bigger room, more breakfast options and room service and restaurant options. The downfall was the internet, as my room's internet didn't allow access to social media and many other sites and almost nobody spoke English. Sochi is third here because I had my own room and that is a plus for me. In PyeongChang, I shared an apartment (I went with the cheapest option available) and while my roommates were nice, I like having some place to myself.

 

Media Center

Sochi, Tokyo, Paris, Beijing, PyeongChang

In this category, any of the five could have been first or could have been last. It’s really a toss-up. I put Paris in the middle. The media center was on the second and third floors of an existing convention center and included most of what we needed to do our jobs. There were some solid restaurants in the basement of the media center as well, which made the relative lack of options within the media center easier to deal with. I put Sochi first because it was just a gorgeous building, built brand new and had just about everything we could need, including a gym, a post office, lots of food options and more. Tokyo, Beijing and PyeongChang all put their media centers in existing facilities and they are nice and also contained everything we needed to do our jobs. I am pretty sure there are people that come to the Olympics and never leave the media center and it is possible to do your job here without leaving. Beijing's facility was quite nice on four different floors, the downside being that the general store and Beijing 2022 stores were routinely out of products.

 

Press kits

PyeongChang, Beijing, Tokyo, Sochi, Paris

The press kits are free “kits” handed out to media members on arrival. If you want to appeal to the media, the word “free” is just about the pinnacle of what you can do. These press kits are a backpack with stuff we can use. Paris really didn't have one. They gave us a water bottle (sponsored by Coke) so that we weren't wasting plastic water bottles, and that is certainly appreciated. But it was definitely less than the previous press kits. The other four contained the media handbook, and each one has included small tokens of the host country. PyeongChang takes the cake on the backpack alone. NorthFace was a sponsor of the Olympics that year and the media backpacks were NorthFace. In Tokyo, our backpacks were Asics, so also solid quality.The advantage to PyeongChang is because their backpacks contain a lot of small pockets and space to store small things and the Tokyo one has just one pocket inside to store things, which isn’t ideal. Beijing edged out Tokyo for that reason, as it also has the necessary pockets and areas to store things.

 

Wi-Fi

Tokyo, Paris, PyeongChang, Beijing, Sochi

In 2014, I had a hard time connecting to the Internet while my laptop was plugged into an ethernet cord in the Sochi media center. In 2018, wireless access was prevalent just about everywhere and the experience was much better for me. In 2021, I didn't find many places where internet was not available. All the buses we rode had free wi-fi, the media wi-fi network seemed to cover the entire venue area when you’re out and about and the hotel room had dedicated wi-fi for my room. Paris comes in second behind Tokyo, mainly because the buses didn't have the wi-fi service, but every other place did, from venues to the media center. I was able to conduct zoom interviews from outside locations thanks to the strong wi-fi in Paris. And even my relatively inexpensive hotel had solid wi-fi. Beijing was probably pretty even with PyeongChang, with access available in all of the venues, the media centers and the buses. The reason Beijing falls just below PyeongChang is because the hotel internet was so restrictive (as noted above). Beijing 2022 did provide a spot in the lobby where we could use the same internet we had in the media center.

So, there you have it. My rankings, completely and utterly unscientific and not at all based in anything but opinion.

I was able to upload photos and stories from the Stade de France without a single problem, with the Paris wi-fi being among the best I've had in my Olympic experiences.