Will IOC Play it Safe for 2020?

Politics and Sport

Will IOC Play it Safe for 2020?

By: Emily Forloines & Alex Wenrich

The IOC voted on the 2020 Olympic location at the beginning of September. The bids were from Istanbul, Tokyo, and Madrid. The question was whether to choose between the fast-growing economy of Istanbul or one of the already established, strong economy of Tokyo or Madrid. The last couple of Olympics have been in new territories and areas where the economy is just starting to get big. Rio de Janerio was awarded with the 2016 Olympics following that theme. If the IOC was to choose Istanbul, it would be the first Muslim host city and venues would be in Asia and Europe; however, Istanbul would have to put $19 billion into their infrastructure and they have concerns about travel and security. Madrid would be able to use 28 existing venues and features a low cost plan of $1.9 billion. But the Spanish economy is currently still in recession and concerns about the Basque separatists, which is currently nonexistent but have bombed trains in the past. Tokyo's bid features a compact venue plan and will be offering public transportation to 27 of the 34 venues. The negatives towards Tokyo are transportation issues to the other 5 venues and a recent nuclear leak from Fukushima power plant. 

Coakley provided a list of the underlying ideals for international sport. Those ideals include open communication lines between different nations, demonstrate that international friendships are possible, foster cultural understanding and eliminate stereotypes, and to establish working relationships that might close the gap between poor and wealthy nations. The IOC is trying to expand the locations of the Olympics which follows the ideal of connecting different nations. Also having countries that may not have the strongest of economies is also attempting to close the gap between wealthy and poor; however, the Olympics have gotten so expensive that poorer countries just cannot afford to host the games. It would be great to see every country eventually host the games to truly make it an international  event to unite the countries around the world.

Since this article has been published, Tokyo won the bid for the 2020 Olympics.