Rio 2016 - The Swimmer Olympics
By Casey Barrett // Swimnetwork Columnist
It was a long flight home from Copenhagen. It was supposed to be
a victory lap, headed up by President Obama and Oprah the Queen of
Media - quite possibly the two heaviest hitters ever to go to bat
for the city of Chicago. They never saw the IOC's fastball coming.
First at bat - the one that was supposed to be a softball gimmie?
18 measly votes. Later Windy City, don't let Europe's unimpressed
door hit you on your way out.
Gary Hall, Jr. was on that flight, the only American swimmer
invited to lobby on behalf of Chicago to bring the Games back to
American shores. He says the mood was grim on that plane ride home,
particularly for those fine midwestern folks who put together one
hell of a bid.
"It was probably the best Olympic bid assembled by a U.S. city
in decades," says Hall. Better than L.A.'s landmark hosting in
1984, surpassing Atlanta's 'Go U-S-A' flag waving in 1996, and
knocking out Salt Lake City's bribery-ridden nod back in 2002.
Chicago, it's said, had its act together. They spent heavy, they
planned right, and they were as well prepared as any city on earth
for the Olympic circus. So, what happened?
The USOC.
While Chicago stepped to the plate, its so-called allies at the
USOC appear to have done everything possible to sabotage any
American city from hosting the Games anytime soon. Defy the IOC by
trying to launch an Olympic cable channel before securing the TV
rights for past Games footage? Check. Fire respected former
athletes from the helm, and replace them with corporate CEOs
clueless of Olympic sport and the politics that come with it?
Double check. Offend international leadership by not showing up at
key meetings, then try to overcompensate by trotting out American
icons on the big day? Trifecta!
All due sympathy to the proud and defeated city of Chicago...
But you know what? Their loss is the swimming world's gain...
Because the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro will be the Swimmer
Olympics.
Where else is the Speedo the national garment? Where else are
swimmer bodies the average build of every citizen? Where else do
they celebrate every New Year's Eve by charging together into the
water at midnight??
If you're a swimmer, now between the ages of 9 and 19 (give or
take on both ends), with Olympic aspirations, congratulations! Your
might be competing at the ultimate Aqua Fest the Games have ever
known.
The drama at the Water Cube in Beijing will live forever, thanks
to the magic 8 of master Phelps, but those Games will have another
legacy - as the ones that featured the times-warping saga of the
super suits. In the pool, they're the LZR Games, defined as much by
technology as by the standard-reseting results produced by Phelps
and the rest. Perhaps appropriate for the coming out industrial
explosion that surrounded the Beijing Olympics...
Rio will be a different national coming out party... Yes, it's
one that will celebrate the arrival of a new nation to be taken
seriously on the international stage. But Rio doesn't seem to want
to be taken seriously, at least not in the hyper-ambitious way of
the Northern Hemisphere. Rio can play with the big boys, sure, as
long as it still gets to party with the kids when the sun goes
down. Which, come to think of it, pretty well defines the Olympic
Village...
Brazil's national swim team already has some serious players,
led by world's fastest man in water, Cesar Cielo. Seven years from
now, look for that squad to feature more than the top sprinter on
earth. You thought the Australians were over-the-top back in Sydney
2000 with their 'Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi' chants? Get ready
for a couple million crazed Cariocas swim fans screaming 'Oh-lay
Oh-lay Oh-lay...' whenever a Brazilian swimmer steps to the blocks
in Rio.
It's gonna be a Carnival of the pool in 2016 and the vote for
Rio is a vote for swimmers everywhere to strut their Speedos - and
forget about the windy shores of Chicago.
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