New York Times: Unfit London and the Games

Today's New York Times cover story regarding the London Games gave me a chuckle between bites of donut.

According to the report, the U.K. bid for the 2012 Olympics included a commitment to get more than 1 million host nationals up off of their arses and engaged in physical activity.

Jolly good show!

This was the first I heard of such a component of the Olympic bid process, but it was not surprising. The sounds of "fittest Games" ring similar to bid book language about "greenest Games" or other aspirational statements. Should we get ready for Annecy, Munich and PyeongChang to present their commitment to the "snowiest" Games in 2018.

Photo via Flaming Fun

Munich 2018 All The Way

Katarina Witt of the Munich 2018 Olympic Bid may be secretly jumping for joy over today's resignation of Annecy, France, 2018 bid chief.

According to Inside The Games, Annecy's CEO pulled out over government financial support (or lack thereof) as the next hurdle of the 2018 Olympic bid process -- delivery of the bid books to the IOC -- approaches Jan. 11, 2011.

July 6, 2011, is the big day when Munich, Annecy or PyeongChang, South Korea, will take home hosting duties from the IOC session in Durban, South Africa.

I am eager to eventually study the bid books and learn more. For the moment, Munich is my personal favorite as it would be wonderful to see the Games return to Bavaria and for the magnificent Olympiapark facilities of 1972 to see new life (though they remain a thriving legacy of the earlier summer Games).

If you wish to peruse the bid books, head over to GamesBids.com and look at the profiles for each city. Happy reading.

Photo via MotorInsight.com

Munich 2018 Olympic Bid Interview

My employer, Edelman, offers some nice perks in appreciation of longtime employees. For one's 10th anniversary with the company, for example, a three-week paid sabbatical/holiday is bestowed. It sure was nice to hit the "official" anniversary earlier this year, and start with a blank slate for potential destinations for a holiday.

While beach time was on my mind, the No. 1 priority -- travel wise -- was easy to name: Munich. This is the city where, as they say, "it all began" for me, possibly in a literal sense as my parents were honeymooning in the 1972 Olympic City just before the Games, and I arrived on the scene nine months later (May 1973).

That's right ... I may be a Munich Olympic baby.

Since my high school days, and looking closely at some of my parents' photos from their own European adventure (including snapshots from their visit to the Olympic Tower in Munich), I had planned, and postponed, and planned again (and delayed ... again, several times repeated) trips to Bavaria. For the sabbatical, it seemed fitting to finally make it there.

Munich is amazing. I'll work to write about the many Olympic connections explored there -- most old (as in Vintage '72) and some new but inspired by the spirit of the XXth Olympiad at Munich.

Before looking to the past, I'm posting tonight about some potential future for Munich's Olympic legacy: specifically, the Munich 2018 Olympic Winter Games bid.

While in Germany, I took time to look up the Munich bid committee, which recently set up shop in an industrial park only a few hundred meters west of the vast Munich Olympiapark (well, it's probably more than a kilometer, but the Olympiastadion to the east is so vast, it seems closer).

With sincere thanks to the communications team and the Muenchen 2018's executive team, their office made time for me to sit down with Mr. Richard Adam, joint director of the Munich 2018 Bid Committee. The video with this post includes details on the Munich 2018 bid program, which is very new (the IOC process to select the 2018 host city has only just begun this summer).

It was surprising to learn Mr. Adams' candor about the 1972 Munich Olympic tragedy, and how many in the city, if not all of Germany, wish to write a new Olympic chapter for the region -- as a manner of moving on while remaining respectful to the victims from Sept. 5, 1972.

Some interesting notes from the Munich 2018 press kit and conversation (off camera) with Mr. Adam include:

• Katerina Witt, the figure skating Olympic champion, is the newly named chair of the Munich 2018 board of trustees. Witt's quote in a recent Munich 2018 press release states, "[The] Olympics have been a key feature in my life ... I have taken part in three Olympic Winter Games, and personally experienced the power of sports of bringing people together. This is why I support, with all my heart, the commitment to bringing the first Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to our reunited Germany."


• Munich's joint bid includes the 1936 Winter Olympic site, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Alpine village south of Munich -- they refer to this as a "two-cluster concept" for the bid, with the urban "Ice Cluster" in Munich (mostly at Olympiapark) and the "Snow Cluster" at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Sliding events (bobsleigh, skeleton and luge) would be held in Schonau am Koningssee in the Berchtesgadener Land (I am scrambling for an atlas). The medals plaza would be in Central Munich beside the Town Hall (see map at top of this post).


• A key component and plus for the bid is the sustainability tied to the '72 Olympiapark. Several venues there -- designed to last the ages (they have held up very well) -- have been "embraced over the decades [more] than any other Olympic facility and thus constitutes a major symbol of sustainability," according to the bid press kit.
  
• As in 1972, the athlete village and media centre would be adjacent to the Olympiapark, in new facilities to be converted to urban housing post-Games (the 1972 Olympic Village fulfilled its purpose as a very early "Green Games" construction project as the now-37-year-old Village is fully-occupied residential apartments covered with lush planters and trees growing out of several multi-level planters).

More information is available at http://www.muenchen2018.org/.

Images via http://www.muenchen2018.org/.

France says "Oui" to 2018 Olympic bid

Looks like France is throwing their chapeau in the ring to try to land the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, according to published reports and GamesBids.com. There's a wide swath of potential candidates, according to the site, including interested parties from Norway, USA, Switzerland, South Korea, Germany, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and others.

"I Will Stand" for Chicago 2016

As reported by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Associated Press, NBC 5 in Chicago (great video) and several other outlets, on July 14 Chicagoans turned out and chipped in up to $12 million in support of the city's bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games. It was a bit of extended celebration of the city making the latest IOC downsizing of the candidate pool. Man, I wish I had been there! They even debuted a new bid song titled "I Will Stand."

To me, Chicago is a perfect candidate. I've grown to love the city's rich history of commerce, architecture, sports and culture. My count on visits to The Windy City for fun (starting with a quick walk downtown during a Union Station layover heading east to New York on Amtrak, to most recent July 4 Weekend/Taste of Chicago holiday weekend with my girlfriend) is approaching a couple dozen. It would be remarkable for world visitors to experience the Games and all the city has to offer.

The other 2016 bid cities have a lot going for them, too. Madrid has got the goods, but with 2012 in London, the European proximity may sway votes to other candidates based on geography. Tokyo hosted in 1964 and has an amazing list of credentials (I believe it is currently the favorite on GamesBids.com, which tracks the competition). Rio has a potential advantage since the Games have not yet visited South America and this is the city's fourth attempt to win the bid (and the scenery would be an amazing postcard for the Olympics -- the city's heavy crime rate seems to be an Achilles' Heel for this bid, however).

The big vote is not until 2 October 2009, so there's plenty of time to speculate. Curious what other cities folks would like to see as future candidates (this week's announcement that Munich is giving it a shot for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games was very cool).