ROAD TO PARIS – Barbados Today

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This Friday we will witness the Opening Ceremony of the prestigious 2024 Paris Olympics, where the world’s top athletes will go for gold. Barbados TODAY continues its coverage of the coveted sports event, through the eyes of one of Barbados’ outstanding sprinters, and a member of the first female squad to represent Barbados at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, Freida Nicholls.

BREAKTHROUGHS AT THE OLYMPICS

As I continue the journey of the Olympics through the years, a few breakthroughs which made a significant difference come to mind.

One of the first such major breakthroughs was the admission of women to compete in athletics at the 1928 Amsterdam Games. Women had been admitted in 1900, but as participants in disciplines that were considered to be compatible with their femininity and fragility, such as swimming and tennis.

In Amsterdam, female athletes competed for the first time in the 100 metres, 400 metres, 800 metres, and high jump. Since then, the opportunities for women in sports have increased tremendously, and they bring their unique brand of sportsmanship to add variety to the ‘greatest show on earth’ – the Olympic Games.

The Olympic flame also made its inaugural appearance at the 1928 Games. Forty years later, Mexican hurdler Norma Enriqueta Basilio de Sotela became the first woman to have the honour of lighting the flame at the Mexico Olympics in 1968.

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At the Paris Olympics in 1924, the first Olympic Village was erected to accommodate the athletes. (Women were housed in separate quarters.) Technology connected the world to Olympic competition for the first time at these Games, through live broadcasts via radio transmissions.

The 1960 Olympics in Rome heralded the emergence of black female competitors as a force to be reckoned with, when American sprinter Wilma Rudolph, nicknamed ‘Black Gazelle’ because of her graceful running style, won three gold medals – an impressive performance after being stricken with polio at age four, which rendered her unable to walk.

Television broadcasting of the Games also came on stream in 1960 in Rome, with worldwide coverage for the first time. The public forged a relationship with Olympic champions and athletes with stories of struggle and accomplishment. They became the ‘darlings’ of the Games as they were brought into living rooms via television. These Games also heralded the introduction of the Olympic Anthem.

The Tokyo Games in 1964 marked the first use of computers to keep results of the competition.

Since the Los Angeles Games in 1984, television coverage has changed the face of the Olympics significantly as professionalism, contractual arrangements, and multi-million dollar sponsorships impact on schedules, facilities, and organisational capabilities. The International Olympic Committee’s revenue from television rights now runs into billions of dollars.

HIGH COSTS OF STAGING THE GAMES

The hosts of Olympic Games over the years have faced the massive costs of providing facilities and upgrading infrastructure. Some countries have implemented successful strategies to ensure a return on their investment, while others have been burdened with the repayment of massive debts years afterwards.

The organisers of the Rome Olympics in 1960 mixed the traditional locations with modern architecture to provide competition venues. But it was at the Tokyo Games in 1964 that the standards of facilities were raised, with a massive investment in infrastructural upgrades in the city, and a construction blitz which provided the latest design in sports facilities.

The Munich Olympics in 1972 raised the bar even higher, and the space age design of the Olympic park and the Olympic tower stand out as examples.

But the reality of the escalating costs of hosting the Games came to the fore in Montreal at the 1976 Games, when building cranes were still dominating the skyline at the opening ceremony. A severe lack of funds made it impossible for the work to be completed on time, and the city of Montreal only completed repayment of the debt in 2006.

The commercialisation of the 1984 Games in Los Angeles gave future hosts the formula they needed to raise the necessary funding, and this strategy was used by the organisers of the Barcelona Games in 1992 to carry out the modernization and construction work on sports facilities and in other key areas of the city. LA also used existing stadia and infrastructure, rather than incur high cost by building extravagant new facilities.

Before the transformation to the impressive Olympic Park in Sydney in 2000, a large part of the venue was an industrial wasteland, after more than a century of industrial and military ventures on the site. Since the Games, there has been significant developmental work to support the conversion of the Olympic Park to a multi-purpose facility for residents there.

With great fanfare, the Olympics returned to its ancestral home in Athens in 2004, but preparation for the Games was plagued with controversy, labour disputes and work stoppages. Many felt that the facilities would not be ready in time, but the Greeks proved the doubters wrong, and Athens was ready for a spectacular Opening Ceremony.

Paris 2024 has decided to rely almost entirely on existing venues, such as Stade Roland-Garros, the home of the annual French Open in tennis, and the football stadia built or renovated for the 2016 European Championships. The Games will be spread out to facilities in other French cities, including Marseilles, Lyon, and Nice.

Even though Paris has taken the approach from Rome 1960 and Los Angeles 1984, who mixed the traditional locations with modern architecture to provide competition venues, the bill is still a whopping US$8.2 billion. The cost is split between new infrastructure (US$4.5 billion), and operating expenses – including stadium reconstruction, opening and closing ceremonies, and operational costs, like food service and labour force wages.

Hosting of the 2024 Paris Olympics is projected to significantly boost tourism for the host city, both in the short and long term. Visitors are expected to spend US$2.8 billion during the Games, and there is optimism that the tourism prospects and destination image will be enhanced among potential tourists over the next several years.

Freida V Nicholls, JP, OLY
freida.nicholls@olympian.org

HONOUR ROLL

BARBADOS OLYMPIANS

XV Olympiad – Helsinki 1952

Cycling: Ken Farnum (competed as a member of the Jamaican team)

 

XVII Olympiad – Rome 1960

Athletics: James Wedderburn (member of the 4×400 bronze medal West Indies team)

 

XIX Olympiad – Mexico City 1968

Athletics: Ezra Burnham, Hadley Hinds
Cycling: Colin Forde, Kensley Reece, Richard Roett, Michael Stoute
Shooting: Milton Tucker
Swimming: Angus Edghill
Weightlifting: Anthony ‘Mango’ Phillips

 

XX Olympiad – Munich 1972

Athletics: Barbara Bishop, Lorna Forde, Heather Gooding, Freida Nicholls, Marcia Trotman, Clifford Brooks, Caspar Springer
Cycling: Orlando Bates, Hector Edwards, Kensley Reece
Shooting: Cavour Morris, Milton Tucker
Weightlifting: Anthony ‘Mango’ Phillips
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