Five-ring circus: The Thread of the XXXIII Olympiad

That was pretty good. And he only briefly touched on other parts of what made those Olympics so ridiculous — Anthropology Days, the water polo players who died from typhus, the gymnast with a wooden leg who won three gold medals, goofy events like tug of war and plunge for distance, the fact it took months to complete everything, etc.
That whole thing might be my favorite sports story of all time.

 

It might be the way toward future Olympics. Spread the venues around, ala the World Cup. More share the financial burden, more feel a part of it. I imagine the softball was a "throw-in" for the canoe/kayak, since Oklahoma is nuts about softball.

 

This summer’s surfers are in Tahiti rather than Paris. As we all know, OKC is the Tahiti of the Southwest.

Seriously though, they have an amazing paddling facility there. Right near Bricktown.

 

Well, I imagine once there event is over they can joint the rest of the delegation in LA. But really - even if it were held in SoCal, it probably would have been in Riverside or somesuch - the Oklahoma equivalent of California. The real question is if they will have access to all the free condoms in Oklahoma.

 

Harlan Fengler wouldn’t be caught dead in that getup.

 

I mean, and Bois mentions this, the fact that the Olympics were in St. Louis at all was something of an extortion. They were supposed to be in Chicago and the organizers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition basically told them they could either give the Games to them or receive direct competition. The idea of putting the Olympics in the States in the early 20th century was probably a bad idea as it was, given the state of world travel at the time, much less the interior. The US got the games again in 1932 and there were half as many athletes as there were in Amsterdam in 1928.

I mean at least that's logical, as it was planned to use SoFi as a co-venue for the Opening Ceremony in some way. That's part of why track has always been the second week, to clear out all the sets and crap from the opening. I guess I'm stunned that USC doesn't have softball in the 21st century. You'd think that it might be worthwhile to build. It's not like a baseball field in Greece or something. If anything, I bet the NCAA would be interested in being in a major market that doesn't have severe thunderstorms.

Yeah, I don't get that one either. It's not like they couldn't have had it somewhere like Bordeaux or Marseilles (that's where the sailing is). I think it might be political. The 'departments' like Tahiti or French Guyana are often treated as full members in French sports competitions (Guyanese teams have been in the French soccer cup). Including them brings them into the fold.

The thing about the whitewater that I find annoying is that there's nowhere on the Colorado River or somewhere in the California interior that has whitewater? Are they that dependent on wholly purpose-built courses? Because if they are, they're gonna have a lot of trouble keeping that sport in the Olympics.

 

I almost wonder if its all the staging crud they need - hell, California has rivers that would work. Getting spectators, officials, tv crews etc there easily is the problem. Not to mention hotel rooms etc. I think that is why artificial parks are more suitable.

 

They built a swim stadium at USC for 1984, bit I'm guessing it's no longer up to snuff? And isn't that why USC baseball abandoned Deadeux (sp) Field?

 

I imagine seating capacity is the biggest deal. As we've seen with the trials - if you can sell a ton more tickets putting swimming in a football venue - you do it.