It's all over now, Baby Blue.
What a great Bob Dylan song that is. And of course the line does not refer to him, 75 years old and still rockin' and rollin'. Playing concerts on what he has dubbed his "Never Ending Tour" that kicked off on 7 June 1988. That's right - 1988.
This is all about what has just come to a conclusion in Rio de Janeiro, the Olympic (Summer) Games. So consider this a Rio Special.
But before I start, let me get the following observations off my chest - and I realise I may well be fighting a losing battle with journalists, reporters, and commentators:
First, The Olympic Games or, for short, The Olympics are plural nouns (easily identified by the ending -s). So whatever you may have thought of them, they have now ended. Were they the best Games ever, as some will have you believe?
I'm not sure - unless of course you hold a British passport and understandably take delight in the admirable adventures, extraordinary exploits, and truly thrilling triumphs of "Team GB".
Second, the word "medal" is a noun, not a verb. You can't "medal" in the Olympic Games - you can only win a medal.
Third, an "Olympiad" is the period of four years between two Olympic Games, not the event itself. Hence, "Rio" were officially The Games of the XXXI Olympiad.
Call me old-fashioned, call me obsessive-compulsive (as my children do), call me plain pedantic; in fact, call me what you will, but I do cringe every time I have to endure any or all of the above abominations. As I have countless times over the past two weeks.
I am happy to report Team GB has safely returned home. On board flight BA 2016 (with its nose painted gold) were the 300-something athletes, their coaches, doctors, and helpers, and all their equipment. And their 67 Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals which, as one more-than average awed reporter worked out, weigh in at a total of 45 kilos.
Nowhere are the medals attributed more momentous meaning of course than in the, you guessed it, Medal Table - that monument to patriotism, nationalism, or jingoism, depending on your view point. And it is indeed a remarkable achievement for "this small island nation" to have secured second place, only behind the United States, but ahead of China. A huge boost for all jubilant Brexiteers who otherwise have gone remarkably quiet since their own unexpected victory back in June.
Q: "Is there a plan?" A: "No, of course there is no plan."
What's more, another pundit who got a little carried away proudly announced if you took out the swimming competitions where the Americans traditionally do extremely well - never mind that this is one of the core disciplines of the Olympics, along with Track and Field Athletics, as opposed to, say, indoor track cycling at which Team GB are unbeatable - Great Britain would be, so to speak, "on the top of the world lookin' down on creation".
Remember the Carpenters and their 1973 hit "Top of the World"? An American singer and instrumental duo, siblings Karen and Richard were among the most successful music artists of all time, with three Number One and five Number Two singles on the Billboard Top 100, even though their career spanned only 14 years (1969 - 1983) as Karen sadly died from heart failure linked to anorexia at age 32. Their other hits included "Close to You", "We've Only Just Begun", "Rainy Days and Mondays", and "Yesterday Once More". Paul McCartney, who knows a bit about music, called Karen Carpenter "the best female voice in the world: melodic, tuneful, and distinctive". Now that's what I call an accolade, Sir Paul. And for what it's worth, I am so with you on this!
Coming back to the inevitable Medal Table, and since the Americans are still swimming strong and will be allowed to continue doing so, Team GB is indeed the overall runner-up of these Olympic Games - but only based on the number of Gold Medals won (27-26), the Chinese and others may object. Because you see, it's not quite as clear-cut as all that since there is at least one other method of ranking, taking into account the total number of medals won overall. And in this table, China would again leap-frog Great Britain (70-67).
Just out of curiosity, there is a third school of thought in this ever-so-important matter whereby the categories of medals are weighted by their importance. If you subscribe to this method and apply the rule three points for Gold, two for Silver, and one for Bronze, the result is: United States 250, Great Britain 144, China 140.
A further variation on this theme is based on the belief that only winning really counts, and therefore Gold medals should be awarded four points to the two for Silver and one for Bronze. In this case, the outcome is: United States 296, Great Britain 171, China 166. Not to mention in too much detail yet another approach mooted by some - weighting the number of medals by population size.
To quote Martin Sandbu (Financial Times): "As always, bigger countries win more often, and when measuring medals per population, Britain drops from second to tenth place (even lower if medal-winning micro-states are included), behind Jamaica, New Zealand, Croatia and Denmark, among others. But the UK can fairly claim to be the best-performing largish country in Rio."
So much for the arithmetic of medals. You decide for yourself. As far as I'm concerned, on this I side with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair: "Do I look bothered?" And, just for clarity, that was a rhetorical question.
From a German perspective - and I do admit rooting for the "home team" on such occasions - whichever way you cut it, "we" are firmly in fifth place, and that's just fine with me. Oh, yes, we did take in over a million refugees over the past year or so, but that's another story. National, societal, and financial resources better spent maybe? Sour grapes, some will say.
My personal highlights of what I was able to watch on TV?
In ascending order, here are my Top Three:
Bronze medal: Usain Bolt winning his ninth Gold at three consecutive Olympics - the much-acclaimed "Triple Triple" over 100 m, 200 m, and in the 4 x 100 m relay team. There are nasty rumours, however, that one of his co-runners of eight years ago in Beijing may have in the meantime been tested positive, in which case our hero would also be stripped of his medal.
Honestly, I ask myself where and for how long they keep all those myriads of urine and blood samples, hoping for the scientific methods of detection to catch up with the dopers' ingenuity. And here was I thinking that nuclear waste posed a long-term storage problem.
And let me just say that we all must hope never to have to be disabused of our firm belief that Usain Bolt's prowess indeed only came from a pretty unique genetic predisposition, a training routine that was harder and more effective than anybody else's, and all that delicious white meat he had as a child growing up on his parents' chicken farm cum grocery store.
Silver medal: The men's football final between Brazil and Germany, played in the legendary Maracana Stadium where of course Germany won the World Cup two years ago. It was hyped up as the host nation's opportunity to wipe away the shame, embarrassment, and pain caused by the ignominious 1-7 defeat against Germany in the Semi Finals of that tournament (the game was, however, played in Belo Horizonte).
To wit: The Olympic men's football competition is entered by "U-23" teams, meaning all players must not yet have celebrated their 23rd birthday, I think when the qualifying rounds begin, with three members of the squad allowed to be older.
This formula is the result of a compromise between the all-mighty FIFA that is obviously keen on safeguarding the value - athletic, media-wise, and therefore financial - of the World Cup, its own stand-out competition, and the IOC that does want to have the world's biggest sport included in their Olympic Games. And a lot of people think otherwise by the way. On this question - should football be played at the Olympics at all? - please allow me to do what I generally do best and firmly sit on the fence.
Timed to perfection to coincide with the beginning of the new football season in most countries, certainly across Europe, even assembling a squad of juniors proved an almost insurmountable conundrum. No player who had featured in the European Championship was eligible, no player newly signed to his club was released, and many of those that might have been selected preferred to stay at home in order not to lose their chance of making it into the starting Eleven with their employer from Day One.
Team GB did not bother.
The German coach, Horst Hrubesch - one of my all-time favourites, no, heroes; do google him if interested in finding out more about this impressive sports-man - gave the German Olympic federation a list of 65 names, and when they had finished phoning up all the clubs, he was left with 18 guys who literally met for the first time at the airport in Frankfurt where they boarded the plane for Brazil, a few days before their first match.
For the home team, super star Neymar jr, who due to injury missed that game against Germany in 2014, being the self-indulging individual he is (I'm at great pains to avoid narcissist), heroically "volunteered to lead the young Brazilian team through the Olympic tournament". How could his club, mighty Barcelona, deny him this mission of truly historic dimensions?
Anyhow, to cut a longish story short, in front of 75,000 Brazilian fans the game ended 1-1 after 90 minutes, 1-1 after Extra Time, and consequently went to a penalty shoot-out. The first four players of both teams scored, then the fifth German missed, and you will never guess who had selected himself to take the final, all-deciding kick should it come to this. Neymar scored and restored, at least in his and his compatriots' view, the honour of the proud Brazilian nation. The stadium was very loud at that point.
The next morning, Neymar had the Olympic rings tattooed on his arm. Yes, there was still some space left which he had no doubt reserved for this purpose some time ago.
Just for completion's sake: Germany won the women's football tournament, in which the best players are allowed to participate, by beating Sweden 2-1. The Scandinavians had eliminated Brazil in the Semi Final, also on penalties. As a consequence, the stadium was empty for the Final.
The football double would have been so nice...
But please bear with me - before I come to my own Number One Rio Olympics experience, I do have to tell a wonderful story in the context of visitors to Maracana and their impact on the mood of the home crowd.
In 1950, the afore-mentioned FIFA World Cup was also hosted by Brazil, with 16 countries participating. Primarily to make the long trans-Atlantic trip for the Europeans worth their while, the formula of the tournament, however, did not follow the principle of knock-out stages producing two teams to play the final. Instead, for the only time in the history of the competition, the four group stage winners qualified for a round-robin final round, each playing the other three and thereby guaranteeing them more games.
As the football gods would have it, based on the previous results the last game still turned out to be the Final to all intents and purposes. On 16 July 1950, it matched mighty Brazil with tiny neighbour Uruguay. Brazil only needed a draw to win the World Cup. And the unthinkable happened: The underdogs won 2-1, the decisive goal scored in the 79th minute by a certain Alcides Ghiggia. The whole host nation, not just the crowd of 199,854 (!) in the stadium, was in shock, torpor, denial. To date, everybody in Brazil knows the expression "the Silence of Maracana".
In his book Futebol. The Brazilian Way of Life (2005), author Alex Bellos compared Ghiggia's shot at goal and the bullet that killed John F. Kennedy as having "the same dramatic pattern... the same movement... the same precision of an unstoppable trajectory. They even have the dust in common that was stirred up, here by a rifle and there by Ghiggia's left foot".
That's what I call Making History. A duo of epochal dates: 7.16.50 meets 11.22.63!
Of course, Alcides Ghiggia became a legend not just in his home country. He delighted in telling the story of his goal over and over again, and since he lived to the ripe old age of 88 (he died on 16 July 2015 - exactly 65 years after scoring that goal), he had ample opportunity to do so.
His classic punch line: "Only three people managed to silence the Maracana: Frank Sinatra, the Pope, and me."
Simply wonderful as I hope you agree.
Gold medal: The women's Beach Volleyball Final between, you couldn't make this up, Germany and Brazil. Even better, the German team had already beaten the other Brazilian duo (that's a "triple duo" now - Carpenters, remember?) in the Semi Finals. I became a huge fan of this sport four years ago during the London Olympics: the rules are easy to understand, the action is exciting to follow, and the duo of venues in both cases was superb - first the Horse Guards in central London and now Copacabana ("quadruple duo"!). Beach Volleyball literally came home to where it originated.
Anyhow, Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst never left in doubt who would win - again playing in front of a capacity crowd that was, let's say, temperamental, noisy, and less-than-bi-partisan. And that also, once the game was over, didn't even bother to stay on for the medals' ceremony. Shame really as they missed a wonderful moment that included their own team.
I'm all the happier I witnessed it.
In the interest of full disclosure: This is the only event I set my alarm clock for to get up at 04:00 am. Usain Bolt I only happened to catch as I fell asleep in front of the TV, as I sometimes will even on important occasions, and miraculously woke up just in time for the relay final.
Serendipity.
One of my favourite words in the English language. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary it means: "luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for". A much better definition I once read somewhere else: "diving into the hay stack looking for a needle and coming out with the farmer's daughter".
The title of a great movie released in 2001, too, starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale - "Destiny... with a sense of humor" as the tag line says. To me, it's the intelligent version of Sleepless in Seattle (1993) with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. I think I may have said this before, but you be the judge.
Meanwhile, back in Rio, the question is asked: was it all worth it? As the city's mayor, Eduardo Paes, elected in 2008, put it a few days before the opening ceremony - the Games must serve the city, and not the city the Games. But then, he would have said that, wouldn't he. And maybe it was for a good part wishful thinking.
Not too long ago, the citizens of Montreal were still paying off the debt for the 1976 Olympic Games if I'm not mistaken.
So, from a purely financial perspective in all likelihood it was not worth it. And like their predecessors around the world, the Cariocas as the locals are called - live and learn - are now in addition left with the brick-and-mortar symbols to remind them of the costs of their two-week party for all time - the stadia, arenas, and other buildings that nobody will ever have a need for again. "White Elephants" in the purest sense of the term.
But what about the "feel-good factor", hard to define or quantify as it is anyway, that we were told prevailed for a fortnight, in spite of seeing far too many empty seats at all but a few events?
Again, experience indicates it's not sustainable. Ask the Londoners four years on.
So next it will be Tokyo's turn. There are already indications of the Olympic arms race syndrome kicking in. Every hosting city wants to stage "the best Games ever", and some can afford it more than others. Tokyo, I have heard, is out to prove this point over Rio.
Which brings me to a proposal well worth considering - and while I've been thinkin', I wish I could claim it was my idea. It is not. But I do kinda like it.
In a nutshell, why not get all member nations of the IOC to chip in, according to GDP or other mutually agreeable economic metrics; build state-of-the-art, permanent sports and, equally important, broadcasting facilities in Olympia, Greece; construct hotels and an Olympic Village to boost tourism during the Olympiads; maybe throw in an airport that connects at least with Athens; and hold the Olympic [sic] Games there every time in future, following the ancient blueprint.
After all, the Olympic [sic] flame is still ignited in Olympia every four years - so much for authenticity, credentials, and genius loci.
Yes, there would be periodic renovation works to be done. Yes, there would need to be a plan in place to put the buildings during the four years in-between Games to good use; and yes, maybe every now and then, additional venues or arenas may have to be created, or existing ones converted, to stage events introduced to the program.
On this note, and by way of trivia for your next pub quiz, did you know that for 2020 these new sports will be Karate, Skateboarding, Sports Climbing, and Surfing? I'm happy to confirm from my own experience that you can sail and surf to your heart's delight off the coastline of the Peloponnese, and I'm sure the other three can easily be accommodated.
The romantics and die-hard proponents of "spreading the Olympic Spirit across nations and continents while giving developing countries a shot at proudly presenting themselves to the world" will obviously be upset, insulted, outraged. But you know what, I think the world has moved on and this new model is fit for the 21st Century.
It can be no coincidence that a number of cities in the recent past have decided to say "thanks but no, thanks" to the prospect of hosting the Games and dropped out early on from the race, in some instances after asking their own citizens and tax payers what they thought of the plan.
If implemented, this solution would decrease overall spending dramatically while boosting sustainability; discourage nationalistic sentiment and the unappetising phenomena it feeds like large-scale, state-sponsored doping programs (and I'm maybe not the only one to see a link here - remember the Sochi Winter Olympics of 2014?); and, last but not least, once and for all do away with the appalling corruption linked to the bidding processes for hosting the event in the first place - no more greedy palms of octogenarian IOC members to grease, no more obscene expenses to pay, no more outrageous extravaganzas to stage - and for the local construction projects once the Games have been "awarded" to the successful candidate city. Of the latter, Rio was a prime exhibit.
But now maybe I'm the starry-eyed romantic. "Imagine" (John Lennon)...
Staging the Games for all times in Olympia, allowing them also to "come home" after almost two millennia, would for sure be a decision of historic dimensions. But it would also be a brave one, a far-sighted one, and a rational one. Oh, and would somebody please let Tokyo know.
Because you know what - The Times They Are A-Changin'!
It would of course terminate the IOC's "Never Ending Tour" which started in 1900 when the modern Olympic Games, after their launch in Athens in 1896, were held in Paris.
If done soon enough for Bob Dylan still to be on his, I would suggest he should be invited to play at the Opening Ceremony.
"Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there ain't no place I'm going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle mornin' I'll come followin' you"
This is all about what has just come to a conclusion in Rio de Janeiro, the Olympic (Summer) Games. So consider this a Rio Special.
But before I start, let me get the following observations off my chest - and I realise I may well be fighting a losing battle with journalists, reporters, and commentators:
First, The Olympic Games or, for short, The Olympics are plural nouns (easily identified by the ending -s). So whatever you may have thought of them, they have now ended. Were they the best Games ever, as some will have you believe?
I'm not sure - unless of course you hold a British passport and understandably take delight in the admirable adventures, extraordinary exploits, and truly thrilling triumphs of "Team GB".
Second, the word "medal" is a noun, not a verb. You can't "medal" in the Olympic Games - you can only win a medal.
Third, an "Olympiad" is the period of four years between two Olympic Games, not the event itself. Hence, "Rio" were officially The Games of the XXXI Olympiad.
Call me old-fashioned, call me obsessive-compulsive (as my children do), call me plain pedantic; in fact, call me what you will, but I do cringe every time I have to endure any or all of the above abominations. As I have countless times over the past two weeks.
I am happy to report Team GB has safely returned home. On board flight BA 2016 (with its nose painted gold) were the 300-something athletes, their coaches, doctors, and helpers, and all their equipment. And their 67 Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals which, as one more-than average awed reporter worked out, weigh in at a total of 45 kilos.
Nowhere are the medals attributed more momentous meaning of course than in the, you guessed it, Medal Table - that monument to patriotism, nationalism, or jingoism, depending on your view point. And it is indeed a remarkable achievement for "this small island nation" to have secured second place, only behind the United States, but ahead of China. A huge boost for all jubilant Brexiteers who otherwise have gone remarkably quiet since their own unexpected victory back in June.
Q: "Is there a plan?" A: "No, of course there is no plan."
What's more, another pundit who got a little carried away proudly announced if you took out the swimming competitions where the Americans traditionally do extremely well - never mind that this is one of the core disciplines of the Olympics, along with Track and Field Athletics, as opposed to, say, indoor track cycling at which Team GB are unbeatable - Great Britain would be, so to speak, "on the top of the world lookin' down on creation".
Coming back to the inevitable Medal Table, and since the Americans are still swimming strong and will be allowed to continue doing so, Team GB is indeed the overall runner-up of these Olympic Games - but only based on the number of Gold Medals won (27-26), the Chinese and others may object. Because you see, it's not quite as clear-cut as all that since there is at least one other method of ranking, taking into account the total number of medals won overall. And in this table, China would again leap-frog Great Britain (70-67).
Just out of curiosity, there is a third school of thought in this ever-so-important matter whereby the categories of medals are weighted by their importance. If you subscribe to this method and apply the rule three points for Gold, two for Silver, and one for Bronze, the result is: United States 250, Great Britain 144, China 140.
A further variation on this theme is based on the belief that only winning really counts, and therefore Gold medals should be awarded four points to the two for Silver and one for Bronze. In this case, the outcome is: United States 296, Great Britain 171, China 166. Not to mention in too much detail yet another approach mooted by some - weighting the number of medals by population size.
"Medal-winning micro-states" - I love it! Name three.
From a German perspective - and I do admit rooting for the "home team" on such occasions - whichever way you cut it, "we" are firmly in fifth place, and that's just fine with me. Oh, yes, we did take in over a million refugees over the past year or so, but that's another story. National, societal, and financial resources better spent maybe? Sour grapes, some will say.
My personal highlights of what I was able to watch on TV?
In ascending order, here are my Top Three:
Honestly, I ask myself where and for how long they keep all those myriads of urine and blood samples, hoping for the scientific methods of detection to catch up with the dopers' ingenuity. And here was I thinking that nuclear waste posed a long-term storage problem.
And let me just say that we all must hope never to have to be disabused of our firm belief that Usain Bolt's prowess indeed only came from a pretty unique genetic predisposition, a training routine that was harder and more effective than anybody else's, and all that delicious white meat he had as a child growing up on his parents' chicken farm cum grocery store.
Silver medal: The men's football final between Brazil and Germany, played in the legendary Maracana Stadium where of course Germany won the World Cup two years ago. It was hyped up as the host nation's opportunity to wipe away the shame, embarrassment, and pain caused by the ignominious 1-7 defeat against Germany in the Semi Finals of that tournament (the game was, however, played in Belo Horizonte).
To wit: The Olympic men's football competition is entered by "U-23" teams, meaning all players must not yet have celebrated their 23rd birthday, I think when the qualifying rounds begin, with three members of the squad allowed to be older.
This formula is the result of a compromise between the all-mighty FIFA that is obviously keen on safeguarding the value - athletic, media-wise, and therefore financial - of the World Cup, its own stand-out competition, and the IOC that does want to have the world's biggest sport included in their Olympic Games. And a lot of people think otherwise by the way. On this question - should football be played at the Olympics at all? - please allow me to do what I generally do best and firmly sit on the fence.
Timed to perfection to coincide with the beginning of the new football season in most countries, certainly across Europe, even assembling a squad of juniors proved an almost insurmountable conundrum. No player who had featured in the European Championship was eligible, no player newly signed to his club was released, and many of those that might have been selected preferred to stay at home in order not to lose their chance of making it into the starting Eleven with their employer from Day One.
Team GB did not bother.
The German coach, Horst Hrubesch - one of my all-time favourites, no, heroes; do google him if interested in finding out more about this impressive sports-man - gave the German Olympic federation a list of 65 names, and when they had finished phoning up all the clubs, he was left with 18 guys who literally met for the first time at the airport in Frankfurt where they boarded the plane for Brazil, a few days before their first match.
Anyhow, to cut a longish story short, in front of 75,000 Brazilian fans the game ended 1-1 after 90 minutes, 1-1 after Extra Time, and consequently went to a penalty shoot-out. The first four players of both teams scored, then the fifth German missed, and you will never guess who had selected himself to take the final, all-deciding kick should it come to this. Neymar scored and restored, at least in his and his compatriots' view, the honour of the proud Brazilian nation. The stadium was very loud at that point.
The next morning, Neymar had the Olympic rings tattooed on his arm. Yes, there was still some space left which he had no doubt reserved for this purpose some time ago.
Just for completion's sake: Germany won the women's football tournament, in which the best players are allowed to participate, by beating Sweden 2-1. The Scandinavians had eliminated Brazil in the Semi Final, also on penalties. As a consequence, the stadium was empty for the Final.
The football double would have been so nice...
But please bear with me - before I come to my own Number One Rio Olympics experience, I do have to tell a wonderful story in the context of visitors to Maracana and their impact on the mood of the home crowd.
In 1950, the afore-mentioned FIFA World Cup was also hosted by Brazil, with 16 countries participating. Primarily to make the long trans-Atlantic trip for the Europeans worth their while, the formula of the tournament, however, did not follow the principle of knock-out stages producing two teams to play the final. Instead, for the only time in the history of the competition, the four group stage winners qualified for a round-robin final round, each playing the other three and thereby guaranteeing them more games.
As the football gods would have it, based on the previous results the last game still turned out to be the Final to all intents and purposes. On 16 July 1950, it matched mighty Brazil with tiny neighbour Uruguay. Brazil only needed a draw to win the World Cup. And the unthinkable happened: The underdogs won 2-1, the decisive goal scored in the 79th minute by a certain Alcides Ghiggia. The whole host nation, not just the crowd of 199,854 (!) in the stadium, was in shock, torpor, denial. To date, everybody in Brazil knows the expression "the Silence of Maracana".
In his book Futebol. The Brazilian Way of Life (2005), author Alex Bellos compared Ghiggia's shot at goal and the bullet that killed John F. Kennedy as having "the same dramatic pattern... the same movement... the same precision of an unstoppable trajectory. They even have the dust in common that was stirred up, here by a rifle and there by Ghiggia's left foot".
That's what I call Making History. A duo of epochal dates: 7.16.50 meets 11.22.63!
His classic punch line: "Only three people managed to silence the Maracana: Frank Sinatra, the Pope, and me."
Simply wonderful as I hope you agree.
Gold medal: The women's Beach Volleyball Final between, you couldn't make this up, Germany and Brazil. Even better, the German team had already beaten the other Brazilian duo (that's a "triple duo" now - Carpenters, remember?) in the Semi Finals. I became a huge fan of this sport four years ago during the London Olympics: the rules are easy to understand, the action is exciting to follow, and the duo of venues in both cases was superb - first the Horse Guards in central London and now Copacabana ("quadruple duo"!). Beach Volleyball literally came home to where it originated.
I'm all the happier I witnessed it.
In the interest of full disclosure: This is the only event I set my alarm clock for to get up at 04:00 am. Usain Bolt I only happened to catch as I fell asleep in front of the TV, as I sometimes will even on important occasions, and miraculously woke up just in time for the relay final.
Serendipity.
One of my favourite words in the English language. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary it means: "luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for". A much better definition I once read somewhere else: "diving into the hay stack looking for a needle and coming out with the farmer's daughter".
Meanwhile, back in Rio, the question is asked: was it all worth it? As the city's mayor, Eduardo Paes, elected in 2008, put it a few days before the opening ceremony - the Games must serve the city, and not the city the Games. But then, he would have said that, wouldn't he. And maybe it was for a good part wishful thinking.
Not too long ago, the citizens of Montreal were still paying off the debt for the 1976 Olympic Games if I'm not mistaken.
So, from a purely financial perspective in all likelihood it was not worth it. And like their predecessors around the world, the Cariocas as the locals are called - live and learn - are now in addition left with the brick-and-mortar symbols to remind them of the costs of their two-week party for all time - the stadia, arenas, and other buildings that nobody will ever have a need for again. "White Elephants" in the purest sense of the term.
But what about the "feel-good factor", hard to define or quantify as it is anyway, that we were told prevailed for a fortnight, in spite of seeing far too many empty seats at all but a few events?
Again, experience indicates it's not sustainable. Ask the Londoners four years on.
So next it will be Tokyo's turn. There are already indications of the Olympic arms race syndrome kicking in. Every hosting city wants to stage "the best Games ever", and some can afford it more than others. Tokyo, I have heard, is out to prove this point over Rio.
Which brings me to a proposal well worth considering - and while I've been thinkin', I wish I could claim it was my idea. It is not. But I do kinda like it.
After all, the Olympic [sic] flame is still ignited in Olympia every four years - so much for authenticity, credentials, and genius loci.
Yes, there would be periodic renovation works to be done. Yes, there would need to be a plan in place to put the buildings during the four years in-between Games to good use; and yes, maybe every now and then, additional venues or arenas may have to be created, or existing ones converted, to stage events introduced to the program.
On this note, and by way of trivia for your next pub quiz, did you know that for 2020 these new sports will be Karate, Skateboarding, Sports Climbing, and Surfing? I'm happy to confirm from my own experience that you can sail and surf to your heart's delight off the coastline of the Peloponnese, and I'm sure the other three can easily be accommodated.
The romantics and die-hard proponents of "spreading the Olympic Spirit across nations and continents while giving developing countries a shot at proudly presenting themselves to the world" will obviously be upset, insulted, outraged. But you know what, I think the world has moved on and this new model is fit for the 21st Century.
It can be no coincidence that a number of cities in the recent past have decided to say "thanks but no, thanks" to the prospect of hosting the Games and dropped out early on from the race, in some instances after asking their own citizens and tax payers what they thought of the plan.
If implemented, this solution would decrease overall spending dramatically while boosting sustainability; discourage nationalistic sentiment and the unappetising phenomena it feeds like large-scale, state-sponsored doping programs (and I'm maybe not the only one to see a link here - remember the Sochi Winter Olympics of 2014?); and, last but not least, once and for all do away with the appalling corruption linked to the bidding processes for hosting the event in the first place - no more greedy palms of octogenarian IOC members to grease, no more obscene expenses to pay, no more outrageous extravaganzas to stage - and for the local construction projects once the Games have been "awarded" to the successful candidate city. Of the latter, Rio was a prime exhibit.
But now maybe I'm the starry-eyed romantic. "Imagine" (John Lennon)...
Staging the Games for all times in Olympia, allowing them also to "come home" after almost two millennia, would for sure be a decision of historic dimensions. But it would also be a brave one, a far-sighted one, and a rational one. Oh, and would somebody please let Tokyo know.
Because you know what - The Times They Are A-Changin'!
It would of course terminate the IOC's "Never Ending Tour" which started in 1900 when the modern Olympic Games, after their launch in Athens in 1896, were held in Paris.
If done soon enough for Bob Dylan still to be on his, I would suggest he should be invited to play at the Opening Ceremony.
"Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and there ain't no place I'm going to
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle mornin' I'll come followin' you"
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