A photographer focuses on the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nes in Beijing. The stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies and athletics competition at the Olympic Games, which open Aug. 8. AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty
Timing is everything. Just ask all the other movies that were up against Gone With the Wind for the 1939 Best Picture. Goodbye Mr Chips, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Wuthering Heights and The Wizard of Oz would most likely have won in any other year.
Then other years, Million Dollar Baby and Crash win.
In three months, the host city of the 2016 Olympics will be decided. Only four are left in the running and I don’t think any of them is an outstanding case for winning the right to host the games.
The race for 2012 was a blockbuster, with London beating out Moscow, New York, Paris and Madrid. Of the four, only Madrid is returning. It is joined in the final four by Rio de Janeiro, Chicago and Tokyo.
Let’s play devil’s advocate:
* Madrid – London is hosting 2012 and no continent has gone back to back since London –Helsinki in 1948-52.
* Tokyo – Beijing just had it. It wouldn’t go back to Asia after just an eight year break.
* Rio de Janeiro – South America has never hosted an Olympics. There are huge (HUGE) question marks about it having the wherewithal to do so and being able to accommodate all the logistical issues that come with the gig.
* Chicago – America has had it too many times already.
Now, IF Rio can host it, then why not?
There is no time like the present to give South America its first guernsey, and if it isn’t going to be now, then when? It will be hosting the 2014 World Cup and that should help its chances.
As the Olympics gets bigger and bigger, the number of cities which will be able to host it is only going to get smaller and smaller.
Cities also need to pay more attention to what happens after the sixteen day party is over. The two most feared words in a host city’s lexicon are white elephant.
Sydney and Athens are still grappling with this and Beijing is now dealing with what to do with a world class 80,000 seat stadium, as well as other facilities that no-one is interested in using.
The days of Havana, Dublin and Istanbul even making the shortlist are over.
This is an issue that the IOC needs to work on. And hopefully in four years time, it will have 20/20 vision.
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