Does Wimbledon have runner-up trophies? I know the U.S. Open does in tennis. On the other hand, there’s no “off-green jacket” for finishing second in the Masters golf tournament.
In part, it depends on how the person/team was expected to do. The response to USA men’s basketball winning the bronze in 2004: “NBA - Not Best Anymore.” The response to USA men’s gymnastics winning the bronze in 2024: much more positive.
Yes, all the majors(grand slams) in tennis have a runners-up trophy of sorts.
Oops, I meant to show Wimbledons:
Why do countries want to host the Olympics?
A few reasons. Prestige. They are athletic countries that seek to show off their prowess. Tourism. Allow politicians to grandstand and claim they are building public infrastructure or funding improvements. Tradition. Snobbery. A distraction. Bread and circuses.
It is hard for me to envision India wanting the Games. But of course their decision is out of my hands.
Not just India but the rest of the world as well. Heat was already an issue in Paris and it’s not going to be much better in LA. Fortunately Melbourne is in the southern hemisphere.
The IOC is already considering shifting the games by a few months. Having them in July/August is not sustainable
It was a bit paradoxical this year. Traditionally, almost all Parisians flee from the city heat during July and August en vacances, but this year the whole world came to Paris to celebrate the Olympics instead.
Most sports have a championship every year; so four winners in four years. Any particular Olympic event awards three medals in four years. In that sense, a bronze medal is harder to get than a Super Bowl ring.
I remember when the long-track speed skating (winter olympics, obviously) were held outdoors. I think Calgary in '88 was the first to build an indoor stadium for that event. That’s the same size track as the summer games, with a lot fewer seats, but I’m sure it’s not cheap. I think every Winter Olympics since then has felt compelled to do the same.
It’s interesting to see how host cities are trying to cope with that rising extravagence in hosting the Games. Paris created a temporary pool in an existing arena, and L.A. will do the same. I wouldn’t mind seeing the canoe and kayak events held on a natural river.
London also made a point of “sustainability” and using temporary facilities or ones that could be relocated after the games. I had a crazy idea of putting some of the more obscure venues on a converted cruise ship or a big barge so they could be moved from one country to another, as needed. This would work really only for cities near a harbor or navigable river.
I had a similar idea for the athlete’s village for a Bosotn olympics. Mass produce blocks of rooms in a shipyard, somewhere; bring them to Boston, moor them in the harbor or the Charles River, and connect them. I was thinking partially of security; surrounded by water on three sides, with just one access point.
I remember reading that in team sports, the bronze medalist is usually much happier than the silver medalist. That’s because the bronze medalist just won its last game, whereas the silver medalist just lost.
By the way, Los Angeles is one of the few places where a temporary pool for the aquatic events would seem unnecessary since they have universities like UCLA and USC that compete at a very high level in these sports and could actually use high level facilities.
What they’ve done for some of these events is to moor cruise ships at the harbor to use as floating hotels for guests, press and other visitors. The athletes’ village seems ideal to be repurposed for college dormitories or apartments or such.
Those pools may not have enough seating for the Olympic swimming, though. L.A. is creating a pool in SoFi Stadium.
I wonder how many pools are needed to host a Summer Olympics. There are the traditional swiming races, along with men’s and women’s water polo, and artisitic swimming. Diving is a different pool, usually in the same building, which I think has eight different events.
I wouldn’t worry about it, though; Boston is not a big college town.
If even Los Angeles, where UCLA and USC compete at a very high level in college swimming, water polo and diving, don’t need Olympic-level facilities, then no city does. So does the IOC admit that they require cities to build facilities that they know will be needed only once?
I’m not sure about what cut of ticket sales go to the IOC, but cities have an incentive to use venues that hold a lot more spectators than any college event would attract.
An Olympic pool itself can be installed inside of a regular auditorium. That’s what they did in Paris. They built it on the floor of La Defense Arena. Here’s an article with a video:
https://www.fastcompany.com/91163841/paris-olympic-games-pools-swimming-sustainability
They construct a big rectangle for the pool and build up a raised floor that is at the level of the pool. I assume that’s what LA is going to do in the SoFi stadium.
They are way ahead of you.
SoFi Stadium prepares for splashy debut in 2028 Olympics – NBC Los Angeles.
I assumed they were always held on manufactured courses for consistency, fairness, and safety. A large tree branch chasing a competitor down the course would add to the spectacle, but also the insurance costs.
If they did use a natural river, I assume the course would be downstream of a dam so they could guarantee the same flow rate for all of the competitors. And they could also filter out any floating debris before the start of the course. In that sense, it’s not purely natural, but it’s got to be cheaper than building a river from scratch.
Or: a silver medalist can keep thinking, I could’ve been a gold medalist, if I’d done one thing differently — while a bronze medalist can easily think, hey, if I’d done anything differently, I could’ve wound up with no medal at all!