Athensfan

With only three weeks until the short list announcement, there still is no bid index. I can't recall another race where the first index was published so late.

This leads me to suspect that perhaps the 2020 candidates do not fall as neatly into the paradigms of previous races. Perhaps the index is being adjusted for this race. That would make me a bit suspicious of it, but then I always have been anyway. Without seeing a diagram of exactly the criteria that's being evaluated, how it is scored for each candidate and how it is weighted, I don't put much stock in it.

ATR's approach may be less complex, but at least they show you how they arrive at their conclusions. And they published their rankings many weeks ago....

What are your thoughts?

What is the consensus on topic drift? When is it ok? When us it not?

Aargh. Read "When is it not?"

Is topic drift a crime, commonplace, or both?

I really think the Olympic charter should be changed to allow regions to be named as host of the Winter Games. While the idea of naming a city makes sense for Summer Games it creates unnecessary limitations for Winter Games. Already PC has had to jump through hoops. Davos/St. Moritz is having a similar issue. Even my least favorite prospective bid would make much more sense as Lake Tahoe 2022.

The only downside I see is a legal one. Who signs the host city contract and who is held accountable at the local level? This issue would need to be addressed somehow.

Otherwise, the rule seems to be unnecessary and unhelpful. What are your thoughts?

Random thought here. I'm curious to see what others have to say.

First, it's interesting to me that these boards are so heavily dominated by men. Second, I'm intrigued that such a high percentage are gay.

Generally, I would expect interests that attract to large numbers of gay men would find some appeal with women as well. GB is really the only place I can think of that attracts straight men, gay men and not many women. Why is this? What is it about Olympic bids that interests men regardless of sexual persuasion, but not women?

Or are the Olympics destined to eventually join the train of stereotypically gay interests like Barbra Streisand, musical theater, house music, and interior design? (Of course plenty of gay men have no interest in the above and there are straight men who DO, but you catch my drift....) Is Sochi shooting themselves in the foot even more than they realize?

Just curious. What does everybody think?

With the sudden resurgence of threads about the existence of God, the following question popped into mind:

Are the Olympic Games becoming excessively humanistic?

I remember sitting in the Athens Opening Ceremony (which on the whole I loved) and starting to feel a bit uncomfortable. The ceremony started feeling like a worship service in praise of humanity. It almost took on a faintly cultic feel. This isn't the first or last ceremony where I've gotten this vibe from the Games.

I think it's wonderful to celebrate humanity's potential -- our capacity for peace, indiscriminate kindness, determination, excellence. Those are all wonderful things. But I do not think they should become the focus of what increasingly resembles religious fervor.

The Games are and must always be for all people --secular or spiritual, irrespective of creed. However I would hate to see a worship of ourselves -- the human race -- rise up to take center stage. As a person of faith, that feels wrong to me.

Please share your thoughts. I'm interested to hear others views on this topic.