Wall Street Journal (August 10)
“If the International Olympic Committee won’t call out systematic Russian doping, at least some of the athletes at the summer games in Rio de Janiero can. So kudos to those—especially the competitors in women’s swimming—who are boldly going where the IOC feared to tread.”
Tags: Athletes, Competitors, Doping, IOC, Olympics, Rio de Janiero, Russia, Women’s swimming
USA Today (August 4)
“The main non-athletic story line of the Rio Games has to be the utter folly of hosting these costly exercises in short-term gratification. Brazil is expected to spend as much as $20 billion on the Games, this after dropping $15 billion on the 2014 World Cup.” These excesses are “back-breaking” for host countries and the IOC should be ashamed of the “scarce money to be misspent” on the Games, money which is diverted from more pressing priorities.
Tags: Back-breaking, Brazil, Folly, Host, Host countries, IOC, Misspent, Olympics, Priorities, Rio, World Cup
The Economist (February 20)
“The path to a 5G wireless paradise will not be smooth” and the ultimate network specs remain to be determined. Still, “the momentum is real. South Korea and Japan are front-runners in wired broadband, and Olympic games are an opportunity to show the world that they intend also to stay ahead in wireless, even if that may mean having to upgrade their 5G networks to comply with a global standard once it is agreed.”
Tags: 5G, Broadband, Global standard, Japan, Network, Olympics, South Korea, Specs, Upgrade, Wireless
Bloomberg (June 9)
“Every day, Tokyo’s subway and trains carry out one of the world’s largest logistical operations, getting a metropolis of 38 million people to work, many commuting for hours. The closer they get to the center, the more congested the carriages become.” While the “system may appear to be straining at the seams, it’s preparing for an even bigger challenge, as the city transforms to welcome its first Olympic Games since 1964.”
The Economist (September 28)
“Has Brazil blown it?” The nation had been flying high, with an economy barely impacted by the Lehman crash and the prestige of being selected to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. “Since then the country has come back down to earth with a bump. In 2012 the economy grew by 0.9%. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in June in the biggest protests for a generation, complaining of high living costs, poor public services and the greed and corruption of politicians.” The Economist believes “Brazil is not doomed to flop,” especially if it makes progress in cutting “red tape, merging ministries and curbing public spending.”
Tags: Brazil, Economy, Lehman, Olympics, Politicians, Prestige, Protests, Public services, Public spending, Red tape, World Cup
New York Times (September 8)
“For the International Olympic Committee, environmental concerns in Japan appeared less urgent than the Syrian war on Turkey’s border, a harsh crackdown against antigovernment protesters recently in Istanbul and Spain’s economic recession and high unemployment…. Amid such economic, political and human rights maelstroms, Tokyo was seen as a calm harbor. It won handily over Istanbul in the second round of voting, 60-36, in a secret ballot of Olympic delegates.”
Tags: Environmental concerns, Human rights, IOC, Istanbul, Japan, Olympics, Recession, Spain, Syria, Tokyo, Turkey, Unemployment
Forbes (September 8)
“As for Olympic infrastructure, the Japanese are famously good at meeting deadlines, which should come in handy when state-of-the-art new facilities need to be built. Another factor is Tokyo’s mass transit system, which in many ways is the world’s most sophisticated – indeed far more sophisticated than it was in the 1980s, when it was already well ahead of most Western cities.”
Tags: Deadlines, Facilities, Infrastructure, Japan, Mass transit, Olympics, Sophisticated, Tokyo
Financial Times (January 25)
More should be done to stimulate growth in the UK. Monetary easing is essential. “The British economy is in the doldrums. Neither sinking nor sailing, just listing. Output is now flat. For all the drama in London of the past few years – from austerity through to the Olympics – the UK remains where it was.”
Tags: Economy, Monetary easing, Olympics, Output, UK
Financial Times (August 13)
“One of the enduring aspirations of post-imperial Britain has been to remain an important player on the world stage. But the country’s self-declared aspiration to “punch above its weight” has sounded increasingly vainglorious and delusional. The fact that Britain is building a new aircraft carrier but cannot currently afford to build the aircraft to go with it seemed to symbolise this losing struggle to stay in the big league…. In these Olympic Games, however, Britain genuinely did punch above its weight.”
Tags: Aircraft carrier, Britain, Olympics, World stage
Telegraph (July 27)
“Brilliant, breathtaking, bonkers and utterly British. Danny Boyle captured the spirit, history, humour and patriotism of an expectant nation last night as he pulled off an Olympic opening ceremony like no other.”
“Brilliant, breathtaking, bonkers and utterly British. Danny Boyle captured the spirit, history, humour and patriotism of an expectant nation last night as he pulled off an Olympic opening ceremony like no other.”
Tags: Danny Boyle, London, Olympics, Opening ceremony
