Public perception is entirely based on what media decides to covers and the slant on that choice - at least two self-serving filters.
How much trouble was there at the last Olympics over ticketing? Right. Where were those held?
UK has an unusaully ‘vibrant’ media - some might suggest with a rottweiler mentality.
Lillehammer seemed awesome from far away, but I have no knowledge of the local attitude. Calgary was pretty successful. Seoul and Beijing both had a lot of crackdown on opposition, which may have violated human rights. Atlanta was super-commercial. Sydney and Barcelona seemed pretty successful.
Wasn’t there also a lot of savings coming from the fact that here in LA, we used a lot of existing infrastructure to host? The Coliseum, Pauley Pavilion, and Dodger Stadium were all used for events and didn’t have to be built from scratch.
Indeed, only two major venues were built for the 1984 Olympics: a swimming/diving stadium and a velodrome. And even those were built very cheaply. (I attended a cycling race during the 84 Olympics so I can attest to the cheapness of the velodrome.)
Olympic hosts since then have tried to look to Los Angeles as an example of how the Games can be profitable, or at least not ruinous, but none have the sense of utter frugality required to pull it off.
Lillehammer was a very well-run Olympics, however it was also the Olympics of the Tonya Harding - Nancy Kerrigan incident.
If we’re talking about the Winter Games I don’t recall many complaints about Nagano 1998.
All I remember about Nagano is the monkeys in the hot tub.
Calgary '88 went pretty well - I lived here at the time and don’t remember any particular angst.
Most of the infrastructure built still exists and is generally well regarded by the citizenry.
The problem isn’t the host cities frugality or lack thereof but the IOC. You pretty much cannot win a bid to host without promising shiny new facilities for almost everything.
Except for the U.S. speedskating team losing its sponsor so that the Colbert Nation had to step in, I don’t recall any problems with the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Does anybody?
Snow had to be shipped in…
As well as Zambonis, no?
Lack of snow, riots the week before the Olympics and the death of the luger.
How about Sapporo? I was young and all I remember is my little black and white TV and throwing up a lot.
Ahh yes. The dirtiest race in history.
In keeping with the theme of ‘higher, farther, stronger’, pronouncing a certain edition to be ‘the best ever’ was a bit of a tradition under Samaranch (cite), although one that apparently was retired after 2000 which I think is when Samaranch stopped, so it looks like Sydney’s not yet been topped. Several other Games have been pronounced ‘the best ever’, though - only Atlanta 1996 wasn’t.
He usually does, though. It was considered noteworthy that he didn’t specifically call Atlanta “The best Games ever.”
Considering that the event keeps getting bigger, I’d argue every one is a more impressive logistical achievement than the last.
Comparing the regular Olympics to the Winter Games isn’t a fair comparison. The Winter Games are a much smaller thing, involving about one quarter as many athletes in fewer than half as many events.
In Vancouver part of the torch didn’t work.
Sidney they had the gymastics vault set up incorrectly resulting in several fails.
Seoul was IIRC also declared to be the greatest Games ever.
AFAIK they’re not allowed to say that about a Games any more (don’t have a cite, just read something somewhere).
Didn’t the cauldron stutter rather badly after Cathy Freeman lit it, at Sydney?
I would imagine the 1896 games that started the whole shebang.