Olympic Assignment

I chose an article discussing some of the venues and facilities that were constructed for the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. The reason I searched for an article on this particular event was partly due to it being the very first Olympics I followed closely as well as my passion for the sport of Ice Hockey. I think Nagano benefited a great deal from hosting the Winter Games in 1998 because it brought alot of people out of the city both tourists and locals from Tokyo who were not familiar with the countryside. Tokyo being the economic center of the country of Japan as well as a Global city for business and tourism, draws people from all over the world, but most of these visitors would not travel to the highly elevated city of Nagano on any day. The Nagano games also left facilties in the region for use by Japanese club hockey and figure skating teams as well as speed skating rink which today houses the Archives and National Museum for Japanese Athletics. This museum is a very large attraction for both tourists as well as citizens and sports teams from around the country. Below is a link to the Olympic Games held in 2004 in Athens, Greece; a site where venues did not fair well after the completion of the games. Stray dogs, military guards, tent cities being formed, graffitti, and abandonded buildings left for ruins are all apart of the scene in Athens today.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1036373/Abandoned-derelict-covered-graffiti-rubbish-What-left-Athens-9billion-Olympic-glory.html 

 The Olympic Games in Athen had a small influence zone and unfortunately did not plateau in terms of popularity or financial support. Things might not even be back to normal (BTN) in Greece after the 2004 games, but slowly declined in terms of poverty rates in the cities district. Being the original host city for Olympic Games, Athens has had a legacy effect among voters and bidders of host cities and the Olympic committee but upon these situations, there might not be an Olympic Games held here for quite some time, if not ever again.

Here is a video of the Czech Republic Team winning the Ice Hockey Tournament… notice the really long “GGGGOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLL” by the announcer. Haha awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa0gvq9d054