As has been the case over the past month, the biggest news about the Olympics has had less to do with sports and is primarily concerned primarily with financial matters, in the midst of a global economic downturn. Falling oil prices have hurt the Russian economy, which could end up impacting plans for the Sochi 2104 Winter Games. The organizers of London 2012 are scrambling to change venues for certain sports and having difficulty finding available funds as the credit markets remain tight.
The Olympic Delivery Authority and developer Lend Lease Corp. haven't secured bank financing for the 1 billion-pound Olympic Village, a 3,000-apartment complex where athletes will stay during the games, and a 400 million-pound broadcast center to be built by a group led by Carillion Plc.
2012: But it's not all gloom and doom in England as the countdown to the next Summer Games goes on. Tessa Jowell, the minister in charge of Games preparation, maintains London 2012 will be "economic gold in a time of economic need." And one of the country's greatest exports, rock music, will play as key a role in the Opening Ceremony that it did in the preview in Beijing two months ago. Reportedly, the Rolling Stones will play the open, along with David Bowie, Elton John, Phil Collins, Sting and others -- creating the largest rock supergroup in history. Mick Jagger will be 69 years old when the Games begin.
And one of the most important part of a modern Olympics is in the incubation phase. Organizers have put out the call to Great Britain's creative community to begin submitting their interest as design consultants for the yet-to-be-determined London 2012 mascots. Parties are welcome to contact LOCOG through the organizers' Business Network.
2016: The race to host the Games of the XXXI Olympiad may be defined by the initial negatives of its participants. Consider all of this: the Asian bid from Tokyo is hurt somewhat by the time proximity to this year's Games -- there were five festivals between Tokyo 1964 and Seoul 1988, and another six between that and Beijing 2008, testament to the IOC's desire to spread the Games around the globe. Madrid, a well-regarded close call for 2012 and boasting nearly a full set of venues already, could suffer from the same dynamic, as it would be the third European Games in a row after London and Sochi.
Rio's chances might be dampened by Brazil's hosting of the World Cup in 2014, and hosting both in the space of two years would be an immense burden on the country's economy. Then there's Chicago -- perhaps the frontrunner by proxy, and a city that would receive a major boost if hometown boy Barack Obama wins the United States presidency next week. Active support from heads of state have been key to Olympic bids (Vladimir Putin of Russia's political help to the Sochi 2014 bid the most recent example), which could counteract the chilly relations between the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee over money issues.
Chicago will also be the first stop on the IOC's group tour of the four 2016 finalists next spring.
The IOC evaluation commission will visit Chicago from April 4-7, followed by trips to Tokyo from April 16-19, Rio de Janeiro from April 29-May 2 and Madrid from May 5-8. The dates were announced Wednesday by the IOC. The 13-person panel, headed by Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco, will meet with bid leaders and city officials and tour the venue sites during the visits.
Also, there were some controversial comments by Canadian IOC member and Vancouver 2010 board member Dick Pound in a French-language interview during the Beijing Games. Roughly translated:
"We must not forget that 400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages, with scarcely 10,000 inhabitants of European descent, while in China, we're talking about a 5,000-year-old civilization," he said.
Native advocacy groups, a bloc that organizers have taken pains to include in the Winter Games' runup, derided the comments as racist, and Pound, a former IOC vice president, issued an apology, claiming that his use of the multi-definition word sauvages was lost in translation. Some did not accept the apology, and pushed their case to the IOC. Last week, the Olympic governing body ruled out an inquiry.
In Lausanne, Switzerland, the Olympic Movement's capital city, IOC president Jacques Rogge made it official last week and sent a letter seeking a second term. It's not expected that anyone will oppose him, and with the organization flush with cash and coming off a strong Olympic cycle, he's assured of a walkover election next year to add a four-year term to his current eight-year stint.
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