Tokyo 2020 Unveils Official Logos

Here they are!

I kinda like it. In my book... it's not as big of a misstep as London 2012, but not as big of a home run as Vancouver 2010.

What do you think?

IOC Votes to Eliminate Wrestling from 2020 Games and Beyond

The IOC voted today to eliminate Wrestling which has been a part of the program sine the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens in 1896. You can read more about the story over at ESPN and through the IOC's Official Press Release.

2020 Summer Games Bid Cities Logos

*Istanbul is currently holding a public vote to have their official logo picked from among those pictured above. I personally like #5.

I've been a little slow on updates lately, but with my excitement building as we head towards the Summer Games in London I will be trying to post more often. This may be old news to some already but I wanted to share with you all the logos for the 2020 Summer Games applicant cities. The race is down to three cities now each with their own advantages and disadvantages. I'll try to take a closer look at the bids for each cities over the next year and share my thoughts with you all. For now though enjoy the logos above. Which logo do you like the most?

USOC Announces It Will Not Bid on 2020 Games

I find this news extremely frustrating. The USOC can't get it's act together enough to allow an interested city to bid on the 2020 games. According to ESPN:

The U.S. Olympic Committee has notified all interested cities that it will not submit a bid to host the 2020 Olympics, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Monday.   

Chicago, New York and Dallas were among those that had expressed interest in putting forth a bid to host the games, but any bid was contingent upon the USOC working out a long-simmering revenue-sharing deal with the International Olympic Committee.

It feels like more and more the USOC has become the "Anti-Olympic" committee. I really hope they can get it together and resolve this soon. With South Africa and the US officially out of the running it looks like the remaining contenders are Rome, Tokyo, Istanbul, and Madrid.

NBC renews Olympics broadcasting rights in the USA through 2020

It was announced today that NBC won bidding for the American broadcast rights to the four Olympics between 2014 and 2020, beating out competing bids from ESPN and Fox. I personally would have been interested in seeing ESPN take over to mix things up, and get live coverage, but alas we will be watching tape delayed coverage for the foreseeable future. Fourth-Place Medal has a nice list of Pros and Cons they've written up:

Pros
• NBC's sports coverage is better. Sunday Night Football is the best sports broadcast on television. The network's broadcasts of Wimbledon and golf's U.S. Open are the highlights of those sports' respective seasons. In terms of production, NBC is top-notch. There are plenty of legitimate complaints about the network's coverage (and we'll get to them) but how it looks and sounds isn't one of them.
Fox dumbs down sports for the viewer and thinks cluttering the screen with graphics and adding whooshing sound effects enhance the broadcast. ESPN is all about promoting ESPN. Though the network's coverage of the 2010 World Cup proved it could be restrained, there's a difference between showing three, uninterrupted soccer games every day and coordinating between dozens of live events.
• Hosts/announcers. This plays into the last one. Bob Costas gets a lot of flak from snarky types who don't like the sweaters and fireside chats and how he and NBC turn the Olympics into a schmaltz-fest. Ask yourself though, were the alternatives any better? ESPN hosts are either professional and slightly boring (Bob Ley, John Saunders) or they're Chris Berman and Stuart Scott. Fox's best one, James Brown, left for CBS years ago. Try to name the guy who's the studio host for the network's NFL coverage. Even if you know it's Curt Menefee, I bet you had to think about it for a second.
Had another network won Olympic rights, there would have been plenty of defections of talent. The big names like Costas may not have been going anywhere. Analysts who specialize in a single sport (think Rowdy Gaines for swimming and Dick Button for figure skating) would have had nothing to do at NBC without an Olympics to call and would likely have jumped at an offer from Fox or ESPN had one been made. Still, having them there is comforting. They're good at what they do. And the thought of Gus Johnson yelling over speed skating races in 2014 would have given me nightmares until then.
• NBC is changing. The network said Tuesday that every event from each of those four Olympics will be available live on some platform. (Streaming Internet video seems the most likely.) With that announcement, the biggest complaint about NBC's coverage is wiped away.
Cons
• Tape delay, tape delay, tape delay. Streaming or not, it still sounds like NBC plans to tape delay television broadcasts. ESPN said in its bid that it would show all events live and compile a primetime compilation for the evening. If I'm reading between the lines of NBC's statement correctly, the network plans to stream some events live on the Internet and then hold their television broadcast until primetime. An improvement, but not the ideal.
Under Ebersol, NBC was notorious for tape delaying Olympic coverage until primetime, seeing it as the best way to attract viewers in the most profitable advertising time of the day. When Usain Bolt broke the world record in the 100 in Beijing, viewers here had to wait nearly 10 hours to watch it on TV. In the digital age of the Internet and Twitter and Facebook, that wasn't going to fly for too much longer.
The problem is that for all the carping, the tactic worked. NBC's ratings on the west coast (where all events on the main network are tape delayed) outpaced those on the east coast. People still watched the second week of Beijing coverage even though it was mostly pre-recorded. This won't be as big a problem in Rio for 2016 because the city's time zone (one hour ahead of New York) will allow most primetime coverage to appear live. In Sochi, it will be.
Maybe by 2016 the viewing experience on our computers will be equal to watching on TV. For now, streaming is an acceptable, if lesser, option.
• Lack of Disney involvement. In a statement released after the bidding, ESPN expressed regret that it didn't place the winning bid and gave a hint at what, beyond billions, that it would have done for the Games. "We put our best foot forward with a compelling offer that included the enthusiastic participation of all of The Walt Disney Company's considerable assets," the statement said. Participation of all Disney assets? Does that mean some of the creative minds at the company could have been tasked to come up with better Olympic mascots than these creepy things?

Rome beats out Venice as Italy's candidate for 2020 Summer Games Bid

Rome was selected over Venice by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) Wednesday as Italy's candidate for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

Venice was eliminated because the bid did not fulfill the necessary criteria. According to a CONI report "Venice would not reach the points threshold laid down by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)".

Reuters reports Venice's bid had romantic appeal but very few of the events would have taken place in the city. Bid organizers planned on using the neighboring cities of Treviso and Padua as part of the proposal to regenerate the area.

Rome hosted the 1960 Games and lost to Athens in the voting for the 2004 Games.

Rome proposes a budget of $61 million (U.S.) with a bid that includes 70 per cent of already existing venues. The bid is centred around two central areas, the Foro Italico that was the centre of the 1960 Games and features the 80,000-seat Stadio Olimpico, and a new sports centre in Tor Vergata on the outskirts of Rome, now under construction.

The IOC will decided in 2013 who will host the 2020 Summer Games. Via GamesBids.com

Italy already planning bid for 2020 Olympics

Italy believes Rio de Janeiro's selection as the 2016 Olympics host has given it an opportunity to host the 2020 Games, with Rome and Venice both announcing plans to bid less than a day after the Brazilian city's stunning victory in Copenhagen yesterday. Via.

*Previously:Video: Monty Python - Silly Olympiad

India Considers 2020 Summer Games Bid

I think this is a great idea!

From GamesBids.com:
After receiving an award Tuesday from the Association of National Olympic Committees for his contribution to Olympic movement in India, which was presented by International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge, Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi told TOI, “we have talked with members of the IOC about hosting the Games in 2020. IOC chief Jacques Rogge feels that India must get its turn for hosting the Games now that China is doing it”.

He added, “we are talking to the IOC members informally now. We are expected to make a formal application by 2013 in order to host the Games in 2020. I expect full support of the IOC in our efforts in this direction”.

Kalmadi said, “the period between 2010 and 2020 will be a golden one for us. We will reach great heights in this period”. He said Delhi will be ready with the necessary infrastructure to host an Olympics after holding the Commonwealth Games in 2010, adding that now, the focus should be on training athletes.