Los Angeles 2024 Bid Logo!

Love it!! Let's hope LA can win the USOC selection process and the official bid itself!!

Tokyo Selected as 2020 Summer Games Host City!

I can not be more happy with the announcement today that Tokyo will be the host city for the 2020 Summer Olympics! I have been pulling for Japan to win this since the get go. Happy to see it happen and I'm looking forward to seeing more come from them over the coming years.

Washington, D.C. Pursuing 2024 Olympic Games Bid

Washington, D.C. has put together an exploratory committee to potentially seek a 2024 Olympic Games bid. I would love to see the summer games back here in the States. You can find out more info at their Official Site and their Facebook Page.

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?

Six Applicant Cities for the 2020 Olympic Games

For now I think I'll be pulling for Tokyo, but that may be a difficult bet with the 2018 Winter Games being held in South Korea just two years prior. Who knows though, anything is possible at this point!


From the IOC Press Release:

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is pleased to announce that six cities have been put forward by their respective National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to apply to host the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in 2020. The cities, in alphabetical order, are: Baku (Azerbaijan), Doha (Qatar), Istanbul (Turkey), Madrid (Spain), Rome (Italy) and Tokyo (Japan).

NOCs had until 1 September 2011 to notify the IOC that a city within their jurisdiction was interested in applying. In addition, all of the above NOCs/cities complied with the newly introduced prerequisite criteria established by the IOC Executive Board (EB) in October 2010.
The six Applicant Cities will now proceed to Phase 1 of the IOC’s two-step procedure, which will lead to the election of the 2020 host city in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 7 September 2013.

• Phase 1, known as the Candidature Acceptance Procedure, focuses on a technical review and the cities’ ability to host the Olympic Games in 2020. Cities are required to answer a questionnaire, and their answers are studied by the IOC. At the end of this first phase, the IOC EB selects the cities that will become Candidate Cities and therefore move on to Phase 2.

• Phase 2, known as the Candidature Procedure, concentrates on Games operational matters. Candidate Cities will be requested to submit their Candidature File – which is an in-depth description of their Olympic project – and will be subject to a technical assessment made by a visiting team – the IOC Evaluation Commission. The IOC Evaluation Commission’s appraisal will be published in a report and sent to the IOC members no later than one month before they cast their votes on 7 September 2013 and in time for the 2020 briefing for IOC Members. The report will also be available to the public on www.olympic.org.

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.

Pyeongchang to host 2018 Winter Olympics!!!

Pyeongchang has successfully won the bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics!! The vote was held in Durban, South Africa this morning. I completely flipped my opinion on this bid over the last year. Originally I had been pulling for Munich, but I changed my tune more recently. My daughter started kindergarten this year and is learning Korean. Her school teaches Korean and our family has grown very fond of the country over the past year. I held no ill will for them before I had only preferred to see a different country selected after Pyeongchan's first two bids were unsuccessful. We watched the announcement live this morning and we are all very excited. 2018 is a long ways off but it is possible that this may be the first Olympics that I attend! 평창 축하합니다!

Beautifully imagined Fortaleza 2020 bid materials

From artist Guilherme Villar;

A fictional 2020 Olympic Games project for the city of Fortaleza in northern Brazil. An identity system was created around the primary and secondary logos which emerged from the concept of unity and the environment. The diagonal rectangles can be seen as fanning out from its center to take the circular shape of the sun, or windmill. They can also be seen as coming together, overlapping, and uniting. My goal was to combine both the philosophy of the Olympics games and the qualities, traits, and characteristics particular of Fortaleza

Via.

Lillehammer is the only bidder for 2016 Youth Games

Former Olympic host Lillehammer was the only candidate to submit a 2016 Youth Games bid to the International Olympic Committee by Thursday's deadline.

The Norwegian town hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics, which are still considered by some as among the most successful winter games.

The IOC says an evaluation commission will analyze Lillehammer's bid before the host city is announced by October 2011.

via.

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

Munich 2018 artwork

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

Munich is one of the three cities bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Graphic designer Kevin Wilson has posted some beautiful artwork on his website related to Munich 2018. It is unclear whether or not this is official artwork that has been commissioned or if this is just an artistic exercise. Either way it's some great graphic design. It seems somewhat inspire by the London 2012 design philosophy, especially if you look at the sport pictograms, but in my opinion the execution overall is much better. Bravo!

The winning city will be chosen at the IOC Session in Durban on July 6, 2011.

*Previously: My feelings on the London 2012 logo...

Munich 2018 Unveils New Candidate City Logo

Munich was first out of the blocks to launch its logo for their bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics, just a day after applications to stage the Games officially closed.

Duncan Mackay of Inside the Games reports the following:
The logo, always an emotive subject as London 2012 discovered two years ago, was chosen following a nationwide vote of 50,000 Germans, which Munich officials claimed demonstrates the support for their bid which is seeking to make history by being the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Games.

The winning design, which is based on a mountain range and could be interpreted as being the half-pipe in snowboarding or a ski jump, that was chosen came from leading Munich design agency, Zeichen & Wunder.

It was unveiled in the shadow of the futuristic Olympiapark that staged the 1972 Summer Games, with its sweeping canopies of acrylic glass stabilised by metal ropes and where the winners included Britain's Mary Peters in the pentathlon and America's Frank Shorter in the marathon, and which still takes the breath away even after all these years.

Three Cities Officially Submit Bids for 2018 Winter Olympic Games

The International Olympic Committee has announced that three cities have been put forward by their respective National Olympic Committees to apply to host the XXIII Olympic Winter Games and XII Paralympic Winter Games in 2018. The cities, in alphabetical order, are: Annecy (France), Munich (Germany) and PyeongChang (Republic of Korea).

The three Applicant Cities will now proceed to Phase 1 of the IOC’s two-step procedure, which will lead to the election of the 2018 host city in Durban, South Africa, in July 2011. Phase 1, called the Candidature Acceptance Procedure, involves a thorough review by the IOC of each city’s potential to organise successful Olympic Winter Games in 2018. Cities must answer a questionnaire, and their answers are studied by the IOC, before the IOC Executive Board selects the cities that will become Candidate Cities and therefore move on to Phase 2.

Personally I would love to see it go to Munich! It would be a great to see it as the first city to host both the Summer and Winter games.

USOC faces backlash after shock of failed bid

Whether the U.S. Olympic Committee deserves all, some or only a little of the blame for Chicago's embarrassing first-round ouster from the voting for the 2016 Olympics, the federation's home office in Colorado Springs will not be a happy place the next few months.

The International Olympic Committee sent a message to the USOC with Friday's humiliation, one that Swiss IOC member Denis Oswald called "a defeat for the USOC, not for Chicago."

Some of the biggest issues that have been hurting the USOC's efforts for years, both on Olympic and geopolitical levels: the Salt Lake City bid scandal and the over-commercialized Atlanta Games, the Iraq war and America's role in the tanking global economy. Via.

*Previously: Chicago 2016 bid officially submitted

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

Rio Wins 2016 Olympics Bid!!

The first Olympic games to be held in South America will be in Rio de Janeiro in 2016!! Very exciting news! I am very surprised that Chicago was out in the first round and that it came down to Madrid and Rio. Would have never expected it to play out that way. Hopefully this will make way for the games to be held in Africa soon! I look forward hearing more info concerning the games as it is released! Congrats Rio!!

*Previously: Rio 2016 Desktop Wallpapers

Michelle Obama speaks about youth and the importance of the Olympics.

(First Lady Michelle Obama during a break in her one-on-one meetings with International Olympic
Committee members in Copenhagen, Denmark, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009
Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

We need all of our children to be exposed to the Olympic ideals that athletes from around the world represent, particularly this time in our nation’s history, where athletics is becoming more of a fleeting opportunity. Funds dry up so it becomes harder for kids to engage in sports, to learn how to swim, to even ride a bike. When we’re seeing rates of childhood obesity increase, it is so important for us to raise up the platform of fitness and competition and fair play; to teach kids to cheer on the victors and empathize with those in defeat, but most importantly, to recognize that all the hard work that is required to do something special.


*Previously: Obama is going to Copenhagen

Video: President Barack Obama Lobbies IOC for Chicago 2016

Annecy to bid on 2018 Winter Games

Awesome! This city is most well know for people like myself for the Annecy International Animated Film Festival

From ESPN:
France's Olympic committee chose the picturesque Alpine city of Annecy on Wednesday as its candidate for the 2018 Winter Games.

The head of the French committee, Henri Serandour, said Annecy was picked in the first round of voting over Grenoble, Nice and Pelvoux.

Annecy received 23 of 42 votes, with 10 for Nice, nine for Grenoble and none for Pelvoux. A majority was needed for victory.

Annecy, while less well-known than front-runner Grenoble, has enjoyed large popular support as a potential Olympic city. With the Alps soaring above its pristine lake, Annecy is considered a picture-perfect site for the games.

Bids must be supported by national Olympic bodies in order to be accepted by the International Olympic Committee, which will pick the 2018 host city in 2011.

Other cities that have announced bids or interest in 2018 are Pyeongchang, South Korea; Munich, Germany; and Almaty, Kazahkstan.

Final Bid Books for the 2016 Summer Olympics Submitted

The final Bid Books for the 2016 Summer Games were submitted today. From what I have seen it seems like they've all submitted pretty nice plans. Madrid seems the least likely to win the bid considering the games in 2012 are right next door in London. Rio would be a nice pick because the games have never been held in South America. The Tokyo bid is very attractive and would be my second personal choice after Chicago. The winner will be announced on October 2nd this year.