This post is an
extended version of an article published in August on hostcity.net.
The recent debacle among the candidate cities for the 2022 Winter
Games has unveiled the depth of the bidding crisis faced by the Olympic Games.
The reform process initiated in the guise of the Olympic Agenda 2020 must take
this disenchantment seriously. The Olympic Agenda 2020 took off with a wide
public consultation ending in April and is now at the end of the working groups phase. One of
the working groups was specifically dedicated to the bidding process and was headed
by IOC vice-president John Coates. More...
The Olympic Games are a universal moment of celebration of sporting excellence. But, attention is also quickly drawn
to their dark side, such as environmental issues, human rights
breaches and poor living conditions of people living near the Olympic sites. In
comparison, however, little commentary space is devoted to the views of
athletes, the people making the Olympics. This article
tries to remediate this, by focussing on Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter which prevents
athletes from freely expressing their (political) thoughts. More...