2014: Olympics at War?

I’d love to actually go to an Olympics, preferably a winter one, but I’d kind of like to go somewhere exotic. Experience an interesting culture in the process, you know. Explore some place new.

The 2010 winter games are in Vancouver. Not so exotic, but easy to get to and get around. That might be the games for me, in truth, given the timing and proximity. Still it’s somewhat disappointing. Either that, or the 2012 summer games in London. Again, not so exotic, but no language barrier makes it user friendly.

Chicago is one of four finalists for the 2016 games. That would be super cool, but again disappointingly familiar. Of course, I doubt my sister will still be living in the Chicago area by 2016, so I’d have to find a place to stay, but my parent’s house is only a 2.5 hour drive from downtown. Certainly doable. You can even train in from K-Zoo.

Actually, I’d love to go to an Olympics in any of the 4 finalist cities for 2016: Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janero, and Tokyo. If Chicago can’t get it, I’d probably root for Rio to be the first South American city to host the games. That would be some exotic and exciting travel. Though I might have places to stay in Tokyo depending on what the future holds. And I'd love to go to Spain.

But wait, I hear you ask, what about the 2014 winter games? You haven’t mentioned those at all… Actually you may notice a rather deafening, and surprising, lack of any mention of the 2014 winter games right now. Why is that? Well, they are in Sochi, Russia on the Black Sea… less than 20 miles from the border with Georgia. Hmm…

You might say: 6 years from now things are bound to have settled down, no? Just remember, we’ve been at war in Afghanistan and Iraq for 7 years now and counting.

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It’s not beyond the IOC to relocate a games, by the way, if things were to still be dicey in that region. They threatened Athens with losing the 2004 games if they didn’t get their shit together. Denver originally won the 1976 winter games only to withdraw as host city when a ballot initiative to finance the games failed. And finally, Chicago was supposed to host the third modern Olympics in 1904, but when St. Louis threatened to have a competing sporting event during its World’s Fair at the same time, the IOC shifted the site. Maybe 112 years later, Chicago will finally get its chance.