Posted on 10/02/2014 7:50:28 AM PDT by Scoutmaster
OSLO, Norway -- Oslo said it has dropped its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics after the Norwegian government declined Wednesday to provide financial backing, a move which leaves just two cities in a race that has been decimated by withdrawals.
After Oslo's withdrawal, Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan are the only two cities left vying to host the 2022 Games.
Members of the ruling Conservative party members voted against giving financial guarantees to the bid amid concerns the games would be too costly. The junior partner in the minority coalition voted against the bid four months ago, and polls have shown more than 50 percent of the public were opposed to the bid.
The city of Oslo said it withdrew its application for government financial backing because it likely would not be approved by Parliament.
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I think one thing that we need to realize is that Americans and Europeans have much different views of winter sports particularly skiing. In America (aside from those who live in places like Colorado, Utah and Vermont) skiing is primarily enjoyed by the upper-middle class and above, but in northern and central Europe everyone skis.
And you do make an excellent point about it being stupid for the expensive resorts in Europe to want the disruption of the Olympics when they are already making plenty of money.
I’d get rid of the Winter/Summer Olympic format and have the events at appropriate times of the year. In the modern world you can have track and field events in Texas in June, skiing and bobsledding in Colorado in January, and skating events in Detroit when appropriate (New arena and facility going up now)
They never should have allowed professionals in the Olympics.
They still do the olympics? Who knew?!
I think that’s a great idea. The Olympics have become bloated and cumbersome. It’s time to pare it down, and make it affordable. It’s become something that it was never meant to be, with ridiculous attempts at entertainment that are meaningless.
Cut back the number of events for both the Summer and Winter games back to what they were for the 1976 Games.
More people would have access to Olympic events without the cost of traveling around the world.
Why couldn’t they spread the events across the globe.
Say have the skiing in the Alps, the speed skating in Asia, heck, you could have the Figure Skating anywhere in the world, as long as there is an arena that has an ice rink.
Well it’s what I grew up on. Frankly they need to get rid of any sport that requires judges.
Even if NBC did have to digitally enhance it on broadcast to ensure that the "fireworks" went off as planned.
Cities can still compete for individual events. You could have your skiing in the USA one year and next time around have skiing events in Europe.
I’d just unbind the Olympic events and make them international competitions under the Olympic banner.
Yes, and the number of events should be cut way back, closer to the original.
The judging is maddening.
You can build ski jumps, bobsled runs, etc. However, it is kind of difficult to build a mountain with a 2500’ vertical drop high enough to have the men's/women's downhill on. Plus it needs to be cold enough to actually have snow. This was the problem in Sochi and even at Whistler for the Vancouver games. The WINTER games need to be at a place that will actually have winter temperatures in February.
As long as they do not cut women’s curling, I am good with that.
Seriously, the only event I always make a point to watch is the men’s downhill. Going 80 mph on a pair of skis down 60 degree incline. Then the finish time between first and 20th place is 2 seconds apart. NUTS.
The Sochi site is already going downhill (no pun intended), but it probably will never get as bad as Sarajevo.
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