Olympics Bidding

For many who know me, in addition to all my other interests, I’m an Olympics fanatic. I know where all the future Olympics will be located. I know what cities are bidding on future games. I know what those cities chances are. I even know all the sports currently participating, those that are being or thought of being dropped (don’t get me started about the International Olympic Committee dropping baseball and softball), and those sports trying to get onto the Olympic program (such as golf, rugby, squash, karate and roller sports). I really don’t know why I’m so fascinated by the Olympics, but it really does tie into my interests in sports.

The current bids being made to the IOC are for the 2014 Winter Olympics. There are currently seven cities making bids: Almaty, Kazakhstan; Borjomi, Georgia; Jaca, Spain; PyeongChang, South Korea; Salzburg, Austria; Sochi, Russia; and Sofia, Bulgaria. Recently IOC president Jacques Rogge urged these cities to control costs and focus on the essentials in making their bids. Any guesses on who the odds on favorite is right now with reports not due from the cities until February 1, 2006? Let’s break it down by looking at past and future Olympics sites:

The 2002 Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was a very successful Games, but one mired in controversy before the games even started.

The 2004 Summer Olympics were held in Athens, Greece. Again, another successful event, one that many thought Greece would not be able to pull off.

The 2006 Winter Olympics will be held in Turin, Italy. This event is fast approaching in February, 2006. This should be a fun event for all, both participants and viewers.

The 2008 Summer Olympics will be held in Beijing, China. All signs say that the plans are ahead of schedule. This has the potential for being the best presentation of an Olympic Games ever.

The 2010 Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver, Canada. Too early to tell how the games will be, but definitely a great achievement for Canada.

The 2012 Summer Olympics were recently granted to London, England. Let’s hope the IOC doesn’t regret their decision.

Where does this leave the 2014 bid cities? Here’s my opinion, based on nothing but my perceptions of the process.

With the 2006 Winter Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics being held where they are, I think it is unlikely that Spain or Austria will then be granted the games without a phenomenal bid. For this same reason, the 2008 Games in China will work against the South Korean bid.

Georgia and Kazakhstan suffers from not being as widely known and Olympics powerhouses and may not have the economic and physical infrastructure to handle such a big event.

This leaves us with Russia and Bulgaria. My guess is Russia. This would be the first time they would host since the dissolving of the Soviet Union. This would be a way to make a statement that they have moved past their communist roots and are further becoming a viable world power.

But, again, it’s only my opinion.

Sometime soon I'll list the possible bid cities for the Summer Olympics in 2016 and the Winter in 2018. They're definitely some intersting lists.