Sir Rols
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Team Oz at Paris 2024
Sir Rols replied to Sir Rols's topic in Paris 2024 Sports / Events Discussions
This is an outrage! Shamefull! ‘Sending them home early’: Aussie greats slam ‘shameful’ Olympic village ban It’s a betrayal of one of the great ideals and attractions of the games to athletes, being able to mingle, and forge friendships (and more) with their peers from around the world. Will our surfers even be allowed to take up their option to travel to Paris after their events? -
Why not? The exercise is to be persuasive, not particularly what you want or believe. It’s always good to be able to play devil’s advocate.
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Show me a report from Sweden with the SOK mentioning Latvia. The SOK itself (and do you really believe I’m not following it closely?) has actually said NOTHING since the initial announcement they were conducting the feasibility study. Anything else has ben speculation. All official mention of Sigulda has come from the Latvian side. Perhaps @Sigh, could you enlighten us if the SOK has acknowledged any more beyond that.
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Thing is, Macron has certainly been talking up the nationwide aspect of them. And handball certainly is a particularly European passion, even if it’s not in the US or Oz. I certainly agree with that. They extoll the virtues of whatever they have to work with.
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Actually, again, you’re letting your wishes get in the way of facts (which you’re usually so beloved of). Now, I’m not denying Sigulda will likely be figured into a plan (if it even progresses that far), but the SOK has so far not publicly addressed Sigulda yet (if it has, you’re welcome to show me the quote). The only locations mentioned specifically by the SOK so far as being part of its feasibility study are Stockholm, Falun, Åre and Östersund (link). You’re putting the cart way before the horse in saying anything has been sealed with Latvia - I agree it’s likely, they almos certainly ARE talking, but they do have other options, including internally (Hammarstrand, which could explain their reference to Östersund), or, as has been so suggested in this thread and elsewhere, Lillehammer. There’s been no indication these aren’t (or are) being entertained
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Thing is, even for the summer games, a spread out “regional” games is not even that novel. Even discounting football, which traditionally gets spread around, look at Paris - Lille, Lyon, Marseilles, even Tahiti! Paris 2024 is about as nationwide and regional a plan as you can get. Even cross-border events - Beijing did that when it held equestrian 1900 km away in a whole different NOC’s jurisdiction, Hong Kong. It’s actually surprising the winters haven’t crossed borders yet - and it’s not through the OC rejecting it. They suggested as much to both PyeongChang and Milano (unsurprisingly, for sliding in both cases). It’s been more host intransigence and vanity that have prevented it. At least the Swedes for 2026 embraced it.
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Sliding is likely, but that’s not even certain - the SOK has said nothing of their plans in that regard. The rest are no more than your over-enthusiastic musings based on the fact the Latvians floated the offer. It’s all nothing but your personal dream-bid at the moment.
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Exactly - a whole host of hurdles, imponderables and hypotheticals before anybody can even consider who gets their name on the logo. As I’ve said before, this would be my last fondest Olympic dream come true - far, far more so than Brisboring. It’s also be far the most likely winter games I’d ever attend. I can’t help but be a little excited and engaged myself. But I’ve been burnt too many times by past disappointments, and am too acquainted with the Swedish public and political establishment’s suspicions of all things IOC (much less their general activist sympathies) to want to allow myself to invest too much emotion in it. I’ll be overjoyed if it happens, but prepared for it to fizzle before it even gets off the ground. And even if it did, can’t see how Latvia could expect to be anything more than an opportunistic hanger-on of convenience.
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Apart from sliding, there is no need or obligation to even consider the other two. Even good reasons not to. They can like as much as they want. But they’re not driving any possible bid. They’re just opportunistically trying to ride on the coat-tails of a possible bid by a former partner. And I reckon that’s just getting over-excited by the prospect of an unlikely hypothetical, which itself is riding on whether an even more unlikely hypothetical even happens.
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I assume most of the more recent and more bid-ready plans are Stockholm-centric. Remember, time is of the essence here, so I’d guess re-planning around Göteborg would be like unnecessarily going back t the drawing board, before you even start to consider whether it’s as facility-ready as Stockholm. As to Lillehammer’s track - I’m not convinced it’s even much closer or accessible transport-wise as Sigulda. Also considering the Swedish-Norwegian rivalry/antipathy, both may well be not interested in working with each other. Also, I personally think Sigulda is better partnering PR move by Sweden.
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They’ve basically said “Sigulda’s waiting for you if you need it, and, by the way, we can also offer up a few indoor venues if you want them”. There’s absolutely no obligation, or need, on the part of Sweden to indulge them. Even if they did throw a few prelims their way, it’d still fall far short of a co-hosting “naming rights” role.
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As Bear said, they’re just hitching a ride rather tha initiating anything. Anyway, don’t see why Norway would ever be interested in snubbing their own new-ish Lillehammer run in favour of Latvia. Poland would make more sense, but I guess they’re more preoccupied with what’s happening in their neighbour Ukraine. And besides, neither of them have made any public indications of even considering a bid anyway. Also, I don’t see why Latvia would get any naming rights IF (the huge if) Sweden 2030 went ahead. It’s nothing different from their role in the 2026 Stockholm-Åre bid. Just a very junior partner of convenience. What next? Paris-Tahiti 2024? LA-Oklahoma City 2028?
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You really have to wonder about GamesBids’ ad server. Since I’ve posted here a few times this week, I’ve noticed the site’s pop-up ads have switched to Swedish ones for me.
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I’m sure Putin would find that appealing! But on second thoughts, maybe they could try for a YOGs on their own…
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I hear they’ve had a stampede of applications since they announced yellow vests as the volunteer uniform… Or is this rehearsals for the OC? Ah, the French. Such a docile lot…
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Yeah, I thought of Copenhagen moments after I posted, but figured it was ambiguous enough to fudge it That said, we’ve had a few Danes on here over time that have fancied (or at least dreamed of) Copenhagen’s chances. Maybe it could happen someday (perhaps in partnership with Malmö).
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Not that I think too much can be made of it, but… Los Angeles newspaper poll hints at drop in support for 2028 Olympics While 57 per cent support does seem worryingly low, again, I don’t see it as a threat. And, anyway, members here, Americans and Angelenos better brace themselves that LA’s about to enter the rocky period of Olympic hosting - that time as the games draw closer where every minor glitch or misstep starts to get magnified as impending Olympic disaster. This is probably the first sign.
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Fun Olympic fact of the day (surely you’d like this @baron-pierreIV): IF (and, yes, we all know that’s a HUGE if) a Sweden bid using Sigulda were to actually come to fruition, it would mean Latvia would become the second of the small Baltic states to have hosted Olympic events, after Estonia’s Tallinn hosted sailing in 1980. It would leave Lithuania as the last untouched Olympic destination of the three. Furthermore, extending to the wider Baltic region, were Riga to wrangle some preliminary events, it would mean EVERY national capital on the Baltic Sea (bar Vilnius) would have been an Olympic host - Stockholm 1912 (& ‘56), Helsinki 1952, Tallinn 1980 and Riga 2030.
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My point was not that the Swedes are shy of losing again - we, and they, know that this one is a VERY special case in that they basically only have to say “yes, we are interested in going further” for them to be handed it on a platter, no votes or questions asked. It was more that 2026 was the latest in a long line of losses and rejections, some more stinging than others (1994 was a huge blow and sore point to them for example), that has fostered a general distrust, even sour grapes, when it comes to the IOC. The 2026 loss stiung to the point that we even saw the likes of Gunilla Lindberg - an IOC member no less - spit the dummy in the aftermath, and berate the IOC for rejecting a bid she said exemplified the spirit of “Agenda 2020”. Continued rejection can breed bitterness. Yes, up to a point. But it depends on which countries. Obviously this is not the time to enthuse the likes of Sweden, or Germany, in the merits of working with the IOC. But the likes of Arabia, India or Indonesia are far more equivocal towards the Russia issue, and public opinion isn’t as inflamed in those and others as it is with those - mainly European, NATO and western-allied countries - more engaged with the conflict. It’s the Olympic Council of Asia, for example, that’s emerging as the main player trying to woo and accomodate Russia at a time when European sports, or ant least the public, are shunning it.
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Oh no, it wouldn’t be Bach camping out (Rogge might have, though). They’re the ones who’ll be in their hotel rooms. Whether they build more hotels or not, a Scandinavian games would inevitably bring out the en-masse campers though.
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Ummm, no they don’t. I don’t know why Finland’s being brought up. They DON’T have the mountains (or the sliding track). The only past proposal I can remember from them posited Lahti with the use of Lillehammer for alpine events (and didn’t progress to anything concrete0. You might as well just replace Stockholm with Helsinki and see if the IOC would go for a three-nation winter bid (Sweden-Finland-Latvia).
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Hundreds demonstrate in Cortina against costly new bobsleigh track for 2026 Winter Olympics
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I’ve always been pretty clear on the forums that a Swedish winter games are my last, fondest Olympic wish. I’d desperately want them to succeed this time. That said, I’m not blind to the challenges against it. It’s all riding on the feasibility report due next month, and how that can be sold to the Swedish government and public. I’m guessing that it will propose a low-cost plan with most, if not everything, in place technically. That should be, in normal circumstances, eminently sellable. But we’re talking Sweden here, and IMO there’s two factors against it even moreso than the challenges it faced getting support for 2026: * The fact that they lost 2026, adding yet another, more recent, sting to their huge string of snubs and disappointments at the hands of the IOC; and * The issue of Russia and whatever plans the OC is hatching to get them competing in Paris. It’s not the kind of publicity the IOC would want, particularly in Sweden, which has been so strident in its opposition to Russia’s adventuring in the Ukraine. It’s just worsening an already low opinion of the OC in Sweden. Even my optimistic side would struggle to say no more than 20-30 per cent. My pessimistic side would say we’re looking at a miracle of withstanding a sub 10 per cent chance. I’ll be overjoyed if it happens, but stealing myself to expect disappointment.
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I assume you mean camping. Yet that was one of the particular successes of Lillehammer and helped set it apart as a spectacular winter games - the HUGE number of Swedes and local Norwegians who came to camp and watch (particularly the cross country events). It was examples like this (and the strong spectator numbers in Sydney and London) that helped lift those games beyond he merely technical successful. I’d always thought that was something Sweden would be able to achieve at a winter games too.
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I’m a bit surprised about that. I know Falun fairly well (I have cousins in Dalarna) and was always under the impression that the whole region is a popular tourism centre within Sweden. Not to mention the region also annually hosts the Vasaloppet.
