Olympic Wrap-up

Now that I've had a bit of time to reflect on the XXIX Olympiad from Beijing, I've come to a few conclusions:
1. Bob Costas is actually not aging. I think he's put into some sort of stasis pod in between broadcast events and he will never age. Either that or he's now been replaced by an android.
2. The Olympics are no longer about athletic achievements, it's about all the other stuff (read money) that happens around it.
3. I was genuinely happy for the American men's indoor volleyball team for winning the gold medal. That was probably my favorite story of the entire games. Although I was a big sucker for the off-key singing of the women's 8-man row team as they sang the National Anthem at the top of their lungs.
4. No athlete can sing the first couple of lines of their national anthem during the medal ceremony. For the Americans, they can normally come back in during the "rocket's red glare" and can finish from there. Except for the Spaniards, whose anthem does not have any words at all.
5. Did you know if Michael Phelps was at the games? I wasn't sure if he showed up or not as the media coverage on him was kinda spotty.

From China, With Love

Last night I stayed up too late to watch the opening ceremonies of the XXIX Olympics and I realized a few things:
1. I am a complete sucker for pageantry and lots of dancers in a stadium with lots of music.
2. Sarah Brightman is not Chinese.
3. I am so afraid of heights that when the dude running around the stadium's top had his wire drop, my first thought was that he was going to fall to his death. I then practically held my breath until the torch relay was all done. It was a tense few minutes for me. I really hope I don't fall to my death.
4. Yao Ming is either really tall, or that little boy from the earthquake is smaller than any 9 year old than I have ever met. I think the Chinese might be breeding a new race of giant basketball players.
5. I think the Chinese were telling me that American culture is no longer going to be the dominate force in the world. I might need to learn Mandarin.

Chicago 2016

For the last couple of years the Mayor (around these parts that title refers to Mayor Daly even if you don’t live in Chicago proper) has launched his campaign to bring the Summer Olympics to Chicago. I’ve followed some of the media coverage for it and have even popped over to the official website http://www.chicago2016.org/ to see what they have to present.

Now, I am probably one of the biggest proponents of telling people of how great a city Chicago is and why everyone should come for a visit, but I wouldn’t even drive the 42 miles from my house based on the information that is provided on the videos. Here’s the most recent one from YouTube:



Where’s the mention of the culture of the city? Why does it only mention the diversity in passing? What about the neighborhoods?

Some of the cities that Chicago is competing against (Madrid and Rio de Janeiro) both present themselves as fun cosmopolitan cities. Chicago branded itself as having huge parks?! I love the parks and I think the lakefront is a fantastic feature of the city, but why make that the way to brand ourselves? We are an international city and we want to host an international event so why don’t we recognize the fact that we have much more to offer than just the lakefront and its amenities. That was fine for the USOC, but we need to let the rest of the world know what Chicago is about: the diversity of its people, the neighborhoods, the culture of the museums, the theater, the festivals, and yes even the parks.