Contrast these pools to the 'Chicago Olympics 2016' plan for a temp pool

The Foro Italico: originally "... built between 1928 and 1938 as the Foro Mussolini under the design of Enrico Del Debbio and, later, Luigi Moretti. ..." It was modified for the 1960 Olympics with an outdoor pool and later remodeled again for the 2009 FINA World Championship which may perhaps be the most significant FINA World Championships ever held.

"... Inspired by the Roman forums of the imperial age; it's design is lauded as a pre-eminent masterpiece of Italian Fascist architecture instituted by Benito Mussolini. ..."

Photo Attribution: Posted to Flickr by antmoose and can be seen here [Link]




Yoyogi National Gymnasium Tokyo 1964: [The Complex] "...was designed by Kenzo Tange and built between 1961 and 1964 to house swimming and diving events in the 1964 Summer Olympics. The design inspired Frei Otto's arena designs for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

The arena holds 13,291 people (9,079 stand seats, 4,124 arena seats and 88 "royal box" seats) and is now primarily used for ice hockey and basketball.

In October 1997, the NHL opened its season at the arena with the Vancouver Canucks taking on the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in two matches. The following season the San Jose Sharks played the Calgary Flames in two games also to open the 1998–99 NHL season.

Photo attribution: kanegen's photostream & Joe Jones' photostream
at Flickr.




The Olympia Schwimmhalle: is an aquatics centre located in the Olympiapark in Munich, Germany. It hosted the Swimming, Diving, and Water Polo events at the 1972 Summer Olympics. At the 1972 Olympics, the stadium had a 9000-seat capacity which was reduced to 1,500 soon after. During the 1972 Olympics, the Olympic Records in all 29 Olympic swimming events were broken as well as the World Records in 20 events. -- [citation needed - Wikipedia]

The Schwimmhalle is unique for its roof construction which is a lightweight stressed-skin structure. This curved structure bears loads through tension only, not compression. The double curvature in the roof design is what provides support which is further stablized through pretensioned guy wires.

Olympic Park built for the 1972 Olympics: "... The concept of a "green Olympic Games" was chosen, and so too was the orientation toward the ideals of democracy. Officials sought to integrate optimism toward the future with a positive attitude toward technology, and in so doing set aside memories of the past, such as the Olympic Games of 1936 in Berlin. -- Source Wikipedia




The Montreal Olympic Pool was constructed for the 1976 Summer Olympics as part of the Montreal Olympic Park. The olympic pool is part of the larger swimming centre, located in the base of the inclined tower. The centre has a spectator capacity of 3,012 seats.

At the 1976 Olympics, the venue hosted swimming, diving, and water polo. It had a capacity of 10,000 seats at the time (6,988 temporary seats were installed).

The building was designed by French architect Roger Taillibert, who also designed the Olympic Stadium and Olympic Village. -- [Source Wikipedia]

Photo source: TravelWebshots.com




Central Lenin Stadium it was called and it is an aquatics center that is part of the Luzhniki Sports Complex in Moscow, Russia. It was opened in 1957 and renovated in 1980. The 10,500-seat venue hosted Water Polo events at the 1980 Summer Olympics. It also hosted events of the 1973 Summer Universiade, 15th World Festival of Youth and Students, 1986 Goodwill Games, Spartakiads of the Peoples of the USSR and others. --[Source Wikipedia]

The center will be updated

Photo source: Arsengeodakov



Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool is an aquatics venue located in Seoul, South Korea. It hosted the swimming, diving, and water polo events at the 1988 Summer Olympics.

Source: '자작' [Wikipedia]



The Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre is a complex at the Athens Olympic Sports Complex, consisting of two outdoor pools and one indoor pool, that was built for the 1991 Mediterranean Games. It was refurbished and expanded for the 2004 Summer Olympics. The larger of the outdoor pools, which seats 11,500 spectators, hosted swimming and water polo events. The smaller pool, which hosted synchronized swimming, sat 5,300 fans. The indoor pool, which hosted the diving events, sat 6,200 observers.

The outdoor pool was the subject of significant controversy during the run-up to the Olympic games. A roof was planned that would have shielded the swimmers from the blazing Athens sun. This feature was later scrapped, leaving the athletes and most of the fans without shade during the events; however, during the course of the games, no athletes made major complaints regarding the facility, nor was there any mention of the lack of a roof affecting athletes' performances[citation needed] - in fact, many Olympic and world records were broken and/or set in this FINA-approved, world-class venue.

Photo of the Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre taken from the stands by Prisonblues




The Beijing Aquatics Center (Water Cube) hosted the Swimming, Diving and Synchronized Swimming events during the Olympics. Water Polo was originally planned to be hosted in the venue but was moved to the Ying Tung Natatorium.

Many people believe Water Cube to be the fastest Olympic pool[10] in the world. It is 1 meter deeper than most Olympic pools. Up to a certain limit, beyond which swimmers will lose their sense of vision, deeper pools allow the waves to dissipate down to the bottom, leading to less water disturbance to the swimmers. The pool also has perforated gutters on both sides to absorb the waves.

With the popularity of the newly introduced faster Speedo LZR Racer swim suit, the Aquatics Center saw 25 world records broken in the Beijing Olympics[3].

Since June 20, 2009 the Watercube has been open to the public on certain days of the week. It is also used for sound and light shows and during the summer of 2009 was turned into a ballet theater for a production of Swan Lake. The building's popularity has spawned many copycat structures throughout China.

Indoor photo attribution: Jmex60 from Wikipedia Creative Commons. Exterior photo attribution Charlie fong from Wikipedia Creative Commons

I am going to add more to this post.

I want to make to make it clear, that what a culture leaves behind is more important than the memories or the news reports. If Chicago is granted approval for the 2016 Games, there will be be little to no legacy left behind to add gravitas to the Olympic ideal.

The idea that the USOC supports a "frugal" Olympics is a clear and absolute indication that it views them solely as a profit opportunity. The Olympics should transcend that idea

I will finish this post soon and I will include more glorious stadiums that pay homage to the Olympic ideal.

ESPN on 2009: Phelps has made swimming a viable platform for TV - Chicago leading contender for the Summer games in 2016

Regarding the Chicago Olympics: "...IOC president Jacques Rogge recently told The Chicago Tribune that Obama's election is "very positive'' for the city's bid. President-elect Obama is expected to personally lobby for Chicago, as Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin did to help secure the 2012 Games in London and the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. ..."

Michael Phelps: "...His coach has told reporters the swimmer will begin seriously training again in February and you'll be able to see him competing this summer (possibly at some shorter distances) in the U.S. and world championships -- which, thanks to Phelps, will be televised on NBC. Swimming on national TV in a non-Olympic year? What's next, fantasy swim leagues?..."

[Link]

Is the 'International Olympic Commitee' playing hardball with the 'USOC' or is it the other way around?

The IOC is taking the international credit crisis quite seriously and they are leveraging external profit centers for more money. In fact they are pointedly asking the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to take a smaller cut in both Olympic Sponsorship deals and broadcast revenue sharing.

In none too subtle ways, the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid has been hinted as the carrot the IOC will use to get the USOC to agree to smaller percentage deals. From the L.A. Times:

Many IOC members have been applying public pressure for three years to insist that the USOC reduce the shares it gets from global Olympic sponsorship (20%) and U.S. broadcast rights money (12.75%)

[Link]

Now, though the IOC has categorically stated that they can ride out this credit crunch, IOC reserves have dropped 14% to $400-million dollars due to their financial officer making a bad bet against the dollar.

From another L.A. Times article:

As of last week, IOC reserves had dropped about 14% in 2008, to $400 million, according to IOC Finance Commission Chairman Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico. The stock market decline was an obvious reason for the drop, but another loss shows just how hard it is to hedge bets. The IOC's investments in currencies other than dollars also dropped because the dollar strengthened -- until the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to nothing this week.

[Link]

There is a Nigerian proverb that states: "When the mouse laughs at the cat, there is always a hole nearby!"

The fact that the USOC will not negotiate a compromise means the USOC is the "mouse" here and that the proverbial "hole" has got to be the massive interest USA media companies have on bidding for the Olympic Games. From AP News:

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc. executives have discussed joining forces to bid on rights to televise the Olympics in 2014 and 2016, turning that competition into an even greater clash of media titans.

TV empires headed by incumbent NBC, Fox and ABC-ESPN have all said they expect to bid on the U.S. rights to the games. Because of the economy, the International Olympics Committee has said it is prepared to postpone its bid selection until after the host city is named next October for the 2016 Summer Games.

[Link]

Another curious thing that has been suggested is that IOC appears to be planning to wait till a host city is selected before opening the bidding for television rights for the 2016 Olympic Games. Now, if Chicago is selected, I suspect USA Media interests would bid more frantically since the US would be the host country. From Hellenic Athletes.com:

According to the IOC, a contract for the US market could be quite the bidding war as NBC, CBS-Time Warner, Fox and ABC Sports-ESPN are all reportedly chomping at the bit to televise what could be another US based games. The IOC’s main revenue source is broadcasting rights, with close to $4 billion alone for the 2010-2012 two-Games package. NBC’s portion -- long the lion’s share -- is about $2.2 billion, from a bid agreed to back in 2003.

And that is the issue -- prices agreed to many years in advance. The US rights deal has been considered the most important IOC television contract because it represents one of the largest source of funds..."

[Link]

Though I am hoping for a Tokyo 2016 Summer Games, I suspect that Chicago is the likely pick especially since the President elect of the United States has ties to that city, that there is a global recession in the horizon, and several enthusiastic USA media conglomerates are ready to go to auction. Hence it appears that Chicago is the likely candidate, and the IOC will likely place a bet on that horse.

As for the economic health of the United States and its global standing post Beijing. Our government has made a lot of bad choices. Americans have made a lot of bad choices and we share the blame for this economic credit collapse. Our government and the citizens herein generally only change when we HAVE TO and the people I associate with feel a sense of panic and severe embarrassment at this time!

Now is an opportunity for the US to change and get innovative or to simply circle the drain as we have been doing.

The "feeling on the ground" here in the US is that we are about to print up a lot of money and spend it on taking the US to the "next level" with massive energy projects and infrastructure projects like this country did in the 1930's and 1950's. I suspect Chicago 2016 will get some of that money and I bet the IOC really wants to hear that.

So, post cash infusion into our economy, I expect either a renaissance on a "Biblical scale" or the United States becoming a second tier nation in the next 30-years with a ferocious military. I for one am betting on the renaissance for that's what Americans do, they believe, and we take chances.

Chicago 2016 bid suggests building a temporary pool for the games

Their reason for building a disposable pool is that they want to: "do it for the children!"

That is to say, once the Olympics are done, they fold it up and put it in a park somewhere for kids to enjoy!

Frankly, I think that it is a tired, political, PR line they are floating here and it does not wash. I just don't believe that a temp pool will benefit Chicago kids for Illinois politicians, starting with the Governor's office, certainly don't have a history of credibility.

From the USOC: "...We worked very closely with international sports federations and national governing bodies,'' said Doug Arnot, Chicago 2016's operations chief. ``This plan is better for sport, better for the games and, perhaps most importantly, better for Chicago's youth sports legacy. This plan remains very financially responsible. ...'' [Link]

Well, Points-off, Chicago! You flunked miserably in my Olympic view of the world. I want a pool with artistic glory and a structure that is a de facto Olympic monument. Perhaps something so great that in a 1000 years it would even rival the Roman Coliseum. The Bird's Nest may be that monument that this century is remebered by but I prefer better one.

In the long run we are all dead. Let Chicago spend some money on an inspirational idea and leave it behind for us.

If Chicago's ideas are that uninspired then the IOC should pass the torch to Japan or Rio!

How bizarre that the richest nation on earth is considering building a temp-pool for the Olympics! That to me is indicitive that this nation is degrading both financially and artistically.

Boy, Japan and Rio are looking pretty good to me right now!