Olympics 2012, in Londontown

It will have been 120 years since it last hosted. It's time for St. Louis to redeem itself!

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2012/08/the-1904-olympic-marathon-may-have-been-the-strangest-ever/

Posted just because I love reading about what a bizarre clusterfuck the 1904 Olympics were. Here's one small snippet:

And the article doesn't even mention that Tug of War and Croquet were medal sports.
Most of the article is a recap of the marathon, where the winner almost died of strychnine poisoning, one guy pulled a Rosie Ruiz, and another wandered off course when he was chased by stray dogs.

 

Good piece by Bradley.
I will say that turning the Olympic stadium into Turner Field was great. There are a couple of soccer teams (West Ham and maybe Spurs) vying to get the London Olympic stadium for their use. That thing would be a terrible soccer venue. The fans are too far away from the field.
I liked visiting the park a couple of weeks ago, but I'm not sure about revitalizing an entire area. There is a homeless shelter or something at the lower end of it.
What is the Olympic cauldron looking thing over next to the Varsity? Was that part of it?
*disclaimer: I'm going to automatically stick up for any Southern city when people bag on it. Piss on Juan Antonio Samaranch.

 

Tug of War needs to be brought back. I would watch the hell out of that.

 

Naked?

 

I'm sure tug of war is huge in some obscure country I've never heard of.

 

That is already done...in the Olympic village...mostly in Usain Bolt's bedroom.

 

Joe, the area around the Park is light years from what it was before the Olympics. Back then, it was basically the old Omni (since replaced by Philips Arena) and CNN Center. It's become much more of a"destination" in the years since, especially with the construction of the Georgia Aquarium, Coke Museum, etc.

I don't recall the story behind the "cauldron" by the Varsity (probably some of that crass commercialism!); the real deal is up the street from Turner Field. I really like what they did with the stadium conversion (though I wish there was more on site to acknowledge its Olympic roots). Otherwise, Atlanta would have wound up with an 80,000-seat dinosaur.

I've wondered what they might do with the London stadium. It's a beautiful venue (at least on television); hope it doesn't wind up like some of the others and set empty.

 

Think I read before the Games that there's several soccer teams negotiating to make it their home stadium. I think one of them nailed down a deal, but no idea which one.

 

It will be used for the 2019 IAAF World Championships I think

 

I know I'm biased, but ...

This.

And this.

And for god's sake, this.

A "security failure" at a public park, a non-sporting venue, by a known domestic terrorist. A big negative, to be sure. Someone died. There were, however, no security incidents at any Olympic-sanctioned venue.

Not sure why the Atlanta Games gets such a bad rap, although most of that, in my experience, seems to be from sports writers who hated the heat and/or the traffic and/or the sprawl. (The "commercialism" complaint is particularly dumb, so I won't include it here.)

But those Olympics produced some all-time memorable performances and moments, from Ali to Kerri Strug to Michael Johnson. And Atlanta didn't put itself into debt for three decades like some host cities. AND our baseball team got a nice new stadium without extorting a dime from public taxpayers.

Frankly, I'm a bit surprised it's not mentioned as one of the best Olympics ever.

 

West Ham United are probably going to move in. They'll ruin it in short order.

 

West Ham had a deal nailed down, but they've been sued by Tottenham Hotspur and/or third-division Leyton Orient over, among other things, territorial rights. Also still somewhat up for debate is what to do with the running track, especially since the stadium is to hold the 2017 World Championships.