Some More News - Some More News: The Olympics Are Kinda Bad, Actually

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

Hey there, news of oars! Which sounds like people who eat the news, but also like people who eat old-timey news boys and odd Gs! Which way did I mean it? That's for you to decide. I'm an old-timey news man, and here's some more news. The Olympics are almost here! Did you know?

Do you ever? Does anyone actually know when the Olympics are coming? Or do we all just sort of turn on the TV and get surprised by them? Like the ring goes running a mean 100 meter dash. I'm just kidding. I'm just razzin' ya. We're really into razzing here on the Show-D.

I razzed like four times this morning. The Olympics are obviously a very major and very popular worldwide event. And that's no razz, all right? you've entered the no-RAS zone. That RAS, no! Countries agreeing to set aside their political differences to have one big field day together is honestly kind of a miracle,

and it speaks to something good and decent within us all. To me, one of the biggest thrills is being in that stadium and hearing the athlete oath, hearing them announce the games being open and seeing the flame come in. Because to me, it reaffirms what the Olympic games are about and why I'm doing what I'm doing. That sounds inspiring because the Olympics,

as an ideal, are inspiring. They give us a tiny fleeting glimpse of what world peace could be like. They're also a bone fest, which personally inspires me to bone and fester. But the Olympics as a real life organization are, as you may have guessed by the video title, far less noble. In fact, the event is closer to a traveling blight,

crawling across the planet and sucking up resources like those awesome Predator cities in that Mortal Engines movie, a common reference that all of us understand and appreciate. And while I could sit here and talk about Mortal Engines like a commoner all night, tragically, the Olympics need my attention and they are far less awesome.

Most of the time. [" Olympics are terrible for everyone, except Michael Jordan and the 92 dream team. The Olympics were pretty great for those guys, but for everyone else, the Olympics are butts. And they've been butts since the start of the modern era. The first modern Olympics were the 1896 Summer Games, which were held in Athens and brought together 241 athletes from 14 nations.

That's shortly after they formed the International Olympics Committee, AKA the IOC, AKA the governing body of the Olympics. No word if that one was corrupt. It was 1896 though, so that probably sucked in general. But the iconic Olympic torch relay, which opens the games with the relay of torchbearers running from Athens to the host city

to light the Olympic flame, only started in 1936, specifically for the Nazi hosted Berlin games. So one of the most lasting images of the Olympics was created as a group project with the Third Reich while the games were all hugged up with the Nazis. That's cool, we keep putting that on stamps, I guess. The first Olympic torch relay was essentially a Nazi propaganda film

orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels, who had convinced the Fuhrer that the games weren't, as he'd originally suggested, an invention of Jews and Freemasons. Hitler didn't even want the Olympics because he thought they were a Jewish conspiracy. And the International Olympic Committee said, let's give them the games, let's give them the games. This decision will age spectacularly.

Nazi propagandist Lenny Riefenstahl even restaged some segments of the relay for her air quotes, documentary, chronicling the games to make them more cinematic and memorable. And so that 1938 film, despite being propaganda created to make the Nazis look cool, also helped create the whole look and feel

of the modern Olympics. The opening ceremonies, the pageantry, the pizzazz, cities around the world spending blinding amounts of cash to host? That began with the 1936 Olympics. It was literally Hitler's idea. And I don't know if you know this, but that guy had a lot of bad ideas.

Roughly 99% of his ideas were bad, that 1% happening right at the end there. Adjusted for inflation, ol' Hitler spent over $500 million to throw himself that party. They cost 10 times more than any previous Olympic games and more than all the previous games combined.

Riefenstahl's film also highlights Black American Jesse Owens' landmark victory in the 200-meter sprint over Aryan competitors and features commentators specifically referring to him as the fastest man in the 200 meter sprint over Aryan competitors and features commentators specifically referring to him as the fastest man in the world because he was so fucking fast, not even Nazis could deny it. He was so fast, he spun Hitler's mustache

like a silly little bow tie. Similarly, today's Olympic games speak to a lot of admirable goals and ideals about international unity, freedom and collaboration. But it's pretty much all talk, much in the same way that Hitler acknowledged Jesse Owens athleticism the same year he already had several concentration camps in operation.

But sure, let's let them host an Olympics because the Olympics are all about casting aside those differences and our disagreements about who does and doesn't deserve to live. Okay, okay, perhaps I'm being too hard on the Olympics. After all, that was nearly a hundred years ago. And who could have known Hitler would break so bad? On a larger scale,

the Olympics represent the very best of humanity, the nations of the world coming together to celebrate each other's finest competitors under a banner of unity and cooperation. Anyone would be proud to host the games in their city. Heck, they're coming to my neck of the woods in four years and I couldn't be more proud. High. I couldn't be more high. I could stand to be a little more high. But the reality is the Olympics coming to your town is less a prestigious opportunity and more like a visit from the Cloverfield monster.

David Cloverfield, they call him. The Olympics hurt their host cities. He makes money and people disappear, you see, much like the Olympics, which will absolutely hoard all of a city's resources and boot you out of your home like there's a gold medal for how far away you land. And more often than not,

they leave cities saddled with expensive construction projects that didn't deliver an economic boom as promised if they were ever completed. Ahead of the 2016 Rio games, Brazilians were told that they could expect increased tourism, safer urban centers, more jobs, an integrated public transport system, and other long-term infrastructure and social benefits.

The government's official policy plan said that they were focused on long-term improvements to mobility, environment, urbanization, education, and culture, and highlighted 27 projects, some of which had little to no actual connection to the games themselves, that would be kickstarted by these investments. Most of these projects, including a new Olympic boulevard connecting Rio's ports and downtown, a new metro line, a large park, and a new rapid bus line were abandoned.

The Olympic Park Stadium is still standing in Rio and currently hosts those rockin' Rio concerts you sometimes see clips from. And sure, maybe they had to evict 650 families from their homes to build it, but imagine dragons can't play in some assy bar with a bogus sound system. The dragon's gotta have room to breathe fire.

You know what I'm saying? What did it even sound like? Ah, I don't know. Rio spent an estimated $7.4 billion in 2024 money on all this Olympic prep. And that's not counting the human cost. The government forcibly removed children and families from their homes by suspending mail

delivery, garbage collection, and even streetlights, then failed to rebuild even basic facilities like playgrounds once everyone was relocated as promised. That's what happened in the one-time working class community of Villa Autodromo, which was home to around 700 families before the Olympics came to town and rendered the area unlivable. You pass a sprawling informal settlement called Maré. It's one of hundreds of neglected shanty towns like this in Rio. It goes on for miles.

But when you pass by there today, all you see is this wall. In Rio, an estimated 70,000 Brazilians were relocated or displaced ahead of the games, which became known locally as the Exclusion Games, which is what my friends and I played instead of sports. The 100 meter shot, the Piscis throw, and who could forget the dong jump?

We were a small group. It was just me. Ahead of the 1984 games in Los Angeles, the city council criminalized homelessness with a law prohibiting use of streets for habitation, including using your vehicle as a living space. Then six months ahead of the games, the council also outlawed sleeping on bus benches.

Sounds bad. Good thing the housing crisis isn't still a huge problem today with LA getting ready to host the games again in 2028. Good thing the LAPD isn't still rounding up and abusing on housed people. So lucky we don't have a police force that was specifically militarized

to host the Olympic games. The thin blue finishing line. Oh wait, we do. The 1984 games were a milestone moment in the militarization of the LAPD, accelerating the city's war on crime that was in many ways a war against its poor black and Latino populations.

Federal money set aside to assist LA in hosting the 84 games was used by the LAPD to purchase machine guns, infrared surveillance equipment, and SWAT team gear, while fast tracking a large class of cadets through the recruitment and training process. All of these extra cops armed with fresh supplies didn't suddenly vanish once the Olympics were over. Now they're just around, collecting overtime,

clearing homeless encampments, and accidentally destroying entire neighborhoods with fireworks. Oh darn, sorry about that. We had to blow them up somewhere. Even if the city doesn't boot you out of your house, which they might, it doesn't mean they won't make your life exponentially worse

in order to host the Olympics. There's a multiversive ways they can bone you, like Spider-Man getting hit with overdraft fees in infinite timelines, while the IOC promotes the idea that the Olympics provide a needed spotlight that can help resolve human rights concerns. In practice, they often deepen social inequalities

within their host cities. For starters, promises to make things more safe and welcoming for international visitors typically involve strategies like intensifying policing, because cops always make people feel safe. Many host cities use the Olympics as an excuse to expand surveillance and law enforcement authority in ways that are difficult, if not impossible, to scale back once the event is through,

like the Patriot Act, except the 9-11 is just people swimming. Ahead of the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia passed Olympic security legislation that broadened police and surveillance powers, including a provision allowing the military to be deployed against domestic threats, which didn't expire when the games ended.

Bonzak, King powers, Prime Minister. Just keep that in your back pocket, boycracky. No! Paris has introduced a thoroughly dystopian new AI-powered surveillance system ahead of this year's games, which Amnesty International warns will amplify racist policing and threaten the right to protest.

Hundreds of cameras across the city will record crowds and public spaces, then use AI developed by private tech companies to scan for suspicious behavior. That's cool. Officials promise the system is only looking for scenarios and isn't using facial recognition to identify individuals. Nonetheless, it obviously could be used one day

to monitor anyone for any reason at all. Also, what are the scenarios? What scenarios are you assuming on people? This is on top of the 35,000 police officers expected to swarm into the city during the opening ceremonies. It's still gonna be the City of Lights, but they're all gonna be blue and red.

So the Olympics don't always work out as promised for people in the host cities or even the taxpayers in the host country. But once cities actually secure the Olympics, it must work out great for everybody and there are no more problems, right? I mean, why else would you want to host the Olympics? To get your own Izzy? No, absolutely not. Who would want one of those things hanging around, shitting everywhere,

making weird grunts that frighten people? Remember Izzy, the Olympics mascot? No, you don't. He had a video game and even a television special. Can we watch 10 seconds of that out of context. And now the tribunal of elders wishes to give you a hero's reward. Oh, very impressive. Excuse me, but what are you doing?

Hot. Anyway, back to the Olympics. You do remember the Olympics, right? It's the thing we've been talking about. Well, as it turns out, the notion that the Olympics provide a huge financial windfall for host cities is largely misleading. Hosts invest a huge financial windfall for host cities is largely misleading. Hosts invest a huge amount of money upfront

to get everything ready for the games. And these new funds and projects benefit certain individuals in some private sectors, along with the public officials that collect all the bribes, of course. But these benefits don't actually trickle down to anyone else, nor do they necessarily even help manage the event itself. Los Angeles is currently seeking

around $2.5 billion in corporate sponsorships to help offset the cost of the 2028 Summer Olympics it already agreed to host. And as of December of last year, the city was somewhere between 35% and 65% of the way there.

The event in total is estimated to cost $6.9 billion, a significant increase from the $5.3 billion budget that was approved back in 2016. Who's on the hook for the difference if they can't convince T-Mu to step in and buy 100 ad blocks? Well, if you live in California, that's me. It's you.

Wait, that's me. For example, the Federal Transit Administration has agreed to cover half of the so-called Inglewood Transit Connector, an elevated train connecting SoFi Stadium with the remainder of its public transit system. Nothing wrong with investing in infrastructure. And hopefully the project will shine a light

on downtown Inglewood and help revitalize the area, which is a fine idea. But actual FTA documents indicate that construction probably won't be completed until 2030, two years after LA is done hosting and the Olympics have moved on to another bustling metropolis, probably Dino-Hatton. They've got a good chance this time.

I think they might got this. The point being that while it's absolutely good to invest in infrastructure, it's kind of whack that it's taking an international sporting event for LA to actually do that. And only for this one specific stadium and not even in time for this to help with the Olympics traffic.

Still, better than having no infrastructure spending, I guess. In fact, some cities like Barcelona or Sydney have used the Olympics as an excuse to improve much needed infrastructure. So even if they didn't see a huge financial windfall from hosting the games, at least they kind of broke even. But many other cities have wasted hundreds of millions, if not billions on costly boondoggles that don't ever manage to pay for themselves

or provide any benefit for the local population. It's such a common occurrence. The IOC has a cute little nickname for these abandoned unused venues. White elephants after the tradition of giving deliberately terrible gifts. Like a billion dollar shake weight. One of these so-called white elephants appears in Athens,

undeniably a seat of Olympic history and home to some of the original Olympians. Hosting the 2004 Summer Games prompted Greece's government to spend $11 billion, including massive funds to construct Athens' Hellenico Olympic Complex, which hosted field hockey, baseball, softball, basketball, fencing, and other marquee events.

Athenians were promised that the complex would become a major center for European sports and events, bringing lots of investment and tourism into the area. But spiraling budgets, poor planning, financial mismanagement, and ultimately the collapse of the Greek economy spelled a doom for the complex. Today, it sits abandoned and partly demolished like a hungry Tamagotchi.

See, I know it's weird for me to shit on potential infrastructure or economic improvements, but there's a clear pattern of failure here, right? Korea's 35,000-seat Olympic Stadium in Pyeongchang built for $109 million ahead of the 2018 games was used just four times before being torn down. That's the for sale baby shoes never worn of Olympic stadiums, if those shoes cost $109 million.

Montreal, Quebec incurred so much debt from hosting the 1976 Summer Games that the city didn't finish paying it off until 2006, and only ended up getting it done by passing a tobacco tax, which is a deliciously ironic way to pay for an athletic event. So yeah, not great for the actual cities that it's in. Kind of makes you wonder who actually benefits

from this money. Perhaps some kind of official or politician who likes money. But before we explore such bizarre questions, you know what else is delicious? Goods and or services you can purchase with money. Let's take a break and dare these ads to sell us some. They might even be for cigarettes, who knows? And nothing's more delicious than a trip into Marlboro country.

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It comes with a solid stick deodorant, cream tube deodorant, two free products of your choice, like a mini body wash and deodorant wipes and free shipping. And hey, new customers get $5 off a starter pack with our exclusive code that equates to over 40% off your starter pack! So many percents off! Use code morenews at shopmando.com. I got you a pepe, a sigaretta. Anyway, those are commercials, probably not for tobacco, but possibly for the Olympics,

but probably not for that either. We were just talking about how much life and money the games suck out of the cities that host them. Like some kind of creature that lives in a big castle and drinks human blood. Cinderella. It's a biennial event that begs for money from the world's nations like a door to door knife salesman.

And we're always too happy to give it to them. Now I know what you're thinking, piles of cash slopped together in construction projects sounds like the kind of thing that would attract corruption like Dracula's to a giraffe, classic Dracula and or Cinderella honeypot. And wouldn't you know it, the Olympics are full of corruption.

Neat, is there a gold medal for that? Like the best little stinker who saws through everyone else's poles in the pole vault? Is there a medal for that? Is there a medal for that? Well, there should be. Because every stage of the Olympics is hopelessly mired in graft and corruption.

Salt Lake City, Utah is currently considered the most likely destination for the 2034 Winter Games. And why not? That's a place that sounds like it has enough space. The last time the state landed an Olympic Games was back in 2002, after members of the Salt Lake City Bid Committee bribed IOC officials with cash and lavish gifts,

including ski trips, real estate, medical procedures, scholarships, job opportunities, musical instruments, actual guns, and jazz tickets. The Utah Jazz Basketball Team, not tickets to see live jazz music, which is almost definitely banned in Utah. The scandal broke in 1998, four years before the actual Salt Lake City Games, and led to the resignation or expulsion of 10 members of the IOC and a brief federal

prosecution of members of the bid committee before the charges were ultimately dismissed in Izzy's glorious name. The Salt Lake City games also catapulted Mitt Romney into the national spotlight, so thanks Salt Lake City for forcing us all to have to deal with this guy. He looks like the Willy Wonka of those old people candies that are mostly rapper, but I guess that's not the Olympics' fault, not entirely anyway. You see, Salt Lake City is sadly not alone

in bribing the IOC to bring the Olympics to their city. Not entirely anyway. You see, Salt Lake City is sadly not alone in bribing the IOC to bring the Olympics to their city. In fact, SLC officials later said they got their crime ideas from the successful 1998 Nagano Japan bid committee, which beat them out in a previous round by somehow spending a reported $14 million to entertain members of the IOC.

They spent $14 million on schmoozing. That's hard to do. That's a Brewster's million situation. I guess they all went to the eras tour or something. In 2021, Brazilian Olympic committee chief Carlos Arthur Neusman extended his arms like a glorious golden athlete and caught a three decade prison sentence for his role in buying the votes that cleared the way for Rio to host the 2016 games. Newsman was convicted of corruption, criminal organization,

money laundering and tax evasion at 79 years old, proving it's never too late to chase your dreams. Hashtag second act. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics resulted in multiple criminal charges against organizing committee member Haruki Takahashi and seven others for allegedly accepting bribes in exchange for sponsorship opportunities at the event. Takahashi was a big time marketing executive who used his extensive personal connections

to set up all kinds of deals around the games, all while accepting over $1 million in personal contributions along with sweetheart deals benefiting his company. Do just clean house like he was on supermarket sweep. Japanese Olympic committee president, Tsunekazu Takita, was ultimately caught up in the probe, as was another Olympic organizing official, Yasuo Mori, who was charged with violating

Japanese anti-monopoly laws. Much like the states, trials in Japan can take several years. So we may not know the outcomes of any of these cases for a long time, maybe by the time Tokyo gets the Olympics again. Meanwhile, Paris is actually the third straight Summer Games host city to spark allegations of corruption and graft,

which led to a raid on their offices last June. French police have actually been investigating the Paris Olympic organizers since 2017 for embezzling public funds and playing favorites with contractors and sponsors. That is a long time. That's three seasons of stranger things ago. The country's anti-corruption agency then jumped into the fray in 2022 as well.

And look, maybe you assumed it's just the IOC itself and these national bid committees doing all the bribery and corruption. And if you did, you can breathe a gusty sigh of sweet relief. It's not just the IOC and the bid committees, thank Izzy, but individuals at all levels of Olympic organizing who are free, if not outright encouraged, to skim a little bit off the take. Anders Besseberg, the 77-year-old Norwegian president of the international biathlon union, Never Give Up on Your Dreams, was recently convicted for

accepting bribes, including luxury watches, hunting trips, a leased car, and a visit with a sex worker in exchange for helping Russia cover up doping allegations against its hopeful Olympians over the course of several decades. My goodness. Okay, so the Olympics are harmful for locals,

don't provide much benefit to the host cities, and are swirling with corruption. Do they have any good qualities? Like, at least they still stand for an ideal, right? The Olympics represent the promise of a united world and inspire us all to do better. Surely the spirit of global cooperation fostered by the games is a net good for humani-

The Olympics ignore human rights abuses. Okay, fine, great, perfect, awesome. Give me something, Izzy, give me something. If all the Hitler stuff at the beginning didn't tip you off, the IOC has an extremely spotty record when it comes to actually confronting real world issues around human rights and global freedom. After all, it might be a symbol

of international unity and peace, but that doesn't mean we actually have international unity and peace. Look around, it's not here. And instead of confronting that fact, the Olympics are more than happy to just ignore things. It's like pretending you have a happy marriage while your spouse is in the shed,

cutting the eyes out of your wedding pictures. In 1968, as Mexico City was preparing to host the Summer Games, the country was also in the midst of a large scale student protest movement against the authoritarian government, inequality, as well as their overspending. You know, for things like the Olympics.

Just 10 days before the Mexico City opening ceremonies, the military and police opened fire on a large crowd of unarmed student demonstrators. The violence continued for around two hours. And though the Mexican government agreed to investigate the incident in the intervening years, we still don't have a solid reliable count of these casualties.

At the time, officials claimed only four civilians were killed, but eyewitnesses report seeing dozens of bodies and prisoners being taken to military bases. It's estimated that as many as 3,000 people may have died in total. These were the same games during which black American sprinters Tommy Smith and John Carlos

famously raised their fists in a black power salute while accepting medals for the 200 meter race, creating one of the single most iconic images in the history of sports. Their protest, which also involved going up to the podium without socks or shoes, was intended to raise awareness about the problem of black poverty in the United States, bringing their very legitimate concerns

about civil liberties to the attention of the international community. in the United States, bringing their very legitimate concerns about civil liberties to the attention of the international community. But IOC president Avery Brundage, an openly racist former Olympian from the US, didn't see it that way. Because he was racist. Smith and Carlos were kicked out of the Olympics

and essentially shunned by the international track and field community. While Brundage, the president of the International Olympic Committee, later wrote, "'The action of these Negroes was an insult to the Mexican hosts and a disgrace to the United States.'" Oh, and the FBI kept them under surveillance for years, because who knows when they might take

another sick ass photo. Gee, it seems like America has a long history of getting really angry when black athletes engage in simple unobtrusive forms of protest on the field. I'm sure there's no insidious truth that needs to be reckoned with there. Nothing to see here. In reality, the Olympic support for things like peace,

freedom, and human dignity has been largely about vibes rather than any kind of action. And sadly, not much has changed on this front since the days of LBJ. Lucky Linden, Don Johnson, LBJ. They probably didn't call him that. Anywho, the Olympic Games have a nagging little habit of completely ignoring human rights abuses.

Beijing was awarded both the 2008 Summer Games and 2022 Winter Games, despite the country's numerous documented human rights abuses from suppressing demonstrations and protests in Hong Kong to its potentially genocidal treatment of the Uighur Muslim population in Xinjiang. Hey, we in America also do human rights abuses

and suppress demonstrations, twinsies, maybe we shouldn't be hosting the Olympics either now that I think about it. The IOC defended this decision by suggesting that assigning the Olympics to countries like China increases international scrutiny, ultimately resulting in improvements to civil liberties more generally,

as the country makes adjustments to avoid looking evil in front of the whole world. In other words, hosting the games there is justified because it's shining a light on the oppression, which may one day result in change, although the games themselves won't do anything to make sure these changes happen. This is also known as the Kony 2012 defense,

but in practice, no one is officially scrutinizing these issues, including, and perhaps especially, the International Olympic Committee. Rather than actually guiding repressive governments toward more open and democratic policies, the International Olympic Committee. Rather than actually guiding repressive governments toward more open and democratic policies, the Olympics offers them instant image rehabilitation in the form of hosting the games.

Hosting the Olympics gives the appearance of community and charity of a nation that graciously decided to host the rest of the world in an event celebrating our shared goal of global unity. Some people on the internet who are much less old than me have referred to this concept as sports washing, which is like whitewashing, but with sports. The Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

found that China ignored the IOC's recommendations in 2008, arresting journalists, abusing migrant workers, and generally repressing protest or dissent during the games, but were soon after awarded the 2022 games anyway. The country started putting Muslims in re-education camps in 2017, long after the supposed additional scrutiny of 2008. Faced with scrutiny over the decision, IOC President Thomas Bach essentially abandoned his organization's entire mission like a rocket ejector seat,

arguing that the IOC is just a sports body, not a world government. Interesting how they can go back and forth between being this symbol of global unity and also just a sports event with no interest in politics, come on. But sure, they can't force China to recognize basic human rights,

but they can choose where to host the games. Indeed, they are the only ones who can. The only thing these oppressive governments can do to stop them is, you know, grossly overspend to try and influence the IOC's decision. And they do. There are, of course, more examples. Ahead of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi,

Russia evicted dozens of residents in order to make way for new sports venues and construction projects, even permanently damaging the village of Akshtir, where important water sources were polluted and roads destroyed. According to a report from Human Rights Watch, migrant workers were subjected to repeated abuse,

including wage theft, dangerous and exploitative work environments, excessively long and demanding hours, and the withholding of their passports so they couldn't leave the country. That's a Jeff Epstein move, my guy, Russia. My guy, Russia. Then of course, there was the chilly

and repressive environment in Sochi for the competitors and the journalists covering the event. On the eve of the Sochi games, a group of more than 50 current and former Olympians called on the country to scale back its repressive homophobic laws, which banned vague activities like gay propaganda, which could potentially exclude anything,

maybe even a few of the events. Sochi's mayor at the time, Anatoly Pakimov, dismissed the concerns, explaining to the BBC that there were no gay people in Sochi. Oh, so basically there was no indication that the Russian government was going to change. Not to mention that the city was apparently so oppressive against gay people that the mayor thought they didn't have any.

And the Olympics said, cool, okay, and moved on. In 2022, the body finally approved a new strategy, stating that host cities must adhere to the UN's guiding principles on business and human rights. That agreement takes effect this year with the Paris Games. Still, this new framework may not be adequate to address real concerns. Doha, Qatar is currently in the running

to host the 2036 Summer Games, having recently served as host for the FIFA World Cup. The country has applied in the past and been rejected, but its 2036 bid is considered the more likely to succeed and would mark the first time the Summer Games have been staged in a Muslim country. And while it is weird and telling that that hasn't happened yet,

they also probably shouldn't hold the Games in Qatar. That 2022 World Cup final in Doha was apparently responsible for widespread abuses among the local migrant worker population, and led to several unexplained deaths, not to mention mass reports of wage theft and unfair labor practices. LGBTQ fans who attended the World Cup also reported being harassed by security forces while European team captains say they were threatened with disciplinary action if they wore rainbow armbands on the field. But look, the IOC is just a sports body, not a world government. It can't force oppressive

countries to adopt more progressive policies, but it can force its athletes to compete in those countries, I guess. Wow. So it's corrupt, bad for cities, and ignores human rights. What can't the Olympics do? We'll find out after these ads that perhaps you, no pressure, will buy stuff from, no pressure. No pressure. We'll buy stuff from- No pressure! No pressure.

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I like to imagine. Ooh. So the Olympics are bad for cities. They're corrupt from top to bottom and they simp for brutal governments. But there's no denying the triumph of seeing an athlete win a gold medal for their homeland and stand up there on the podium,

their chest swelling with pride as Chewbacca is forced to watch from his place of medalist dishonor. Ha ha ha! Chewie, you fool! That's putting positive energy out into the universe at least, right? Right?

I mean, does that make up for the other stuff? Probably not. But hey, there's at least one good thing about the Olympics. And it's this. The Olympics are terrible for the environment. Sorry, bad. It said bad, not good. It said bad, great, bad. It said bad, not good. It said bad, great, superb, mighty fuck.

Does this beast, no, no end. But yes, in case there was any doubt, all the travel, construction, and tourism created by the Olympics leave a carbon footprint large enough for its own zip code. The last two summer games alone dropped around seven million tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. And though the IOC pays the expected lip service

to sustainability and going green, there's little actual transparency on these issues. There was honestly more transparency with the bribes. A 2021 study published in the journal, Nature Sustainability, found that Olympic events are actually getting worse for the environment over time, not better, because they continually expand in size.

The most sustainable Olympics by their metric was the 2002 games in Salt Lake City. Thank you, MIT! While Sochi and Rio were the largest polluters. Part of the reason for the IOC's poor environmental report card is that they're very big into the carbon offset model, wherein you pollute the environment as much as you like and then purchase dubious credits to offset it

so that you can claim everything works out as carbon neutral in the end. The big problem here is that that whole system is fake. A 2023 investigation by The Guardian and researchers from Corporate Accountability found that the global multi-billion dollar carbon trading industry relies on funding projects that don't actually conserve carbon or help the environment.

39 of the 50 most popular emission offset projects, close to 80% of the total number, were categorized by the survey as worthless in terms of cutting global emissions. Eight others were listed as problematic. In summary, the study concluded that quote, junk or overvalued carbon credits

that exaggerate emission reduction benefits could be the norm. You know those businesses that pledge to plant a tree for each one they cut down? This is like vowing that for every tree cut, you will set an additional tree entirely on fire. Massive amounts of carbon emissions are to be expected and are essentially unavoidable

when planning an international event on this scale. So maybe we need to reckon with that fact, more on that in a minute actually, but rather than doing anything to curtail emissions, the IOC is also sending the Olympics to cities and countries that lack any kind of renewable green infrastructure or environmental protections in place that would prevent them from becoming true climate disasters.

Depending on your perspective, Beijing either utilized or wasted a massive amount of water to make the artificial snow they required to host the 2022 Winter Games, which also used up a huge investment of electricity. Two outdoor venues required around 500 million gallons of water to create snow, enough to stage several water world stunt spectaculars.

Meanwhile, Sochi organizers had promised a zero waste games that would align with international environmental standards. But Watchdog Group, the environmental watch of the North Caucasus documented all manner of violations, including illegal industrial waste dumping that polluted local water supplies, blocked routes designated for wildlife, and construction processes that increased the chances

of landslides, mudflows, and building collapses. Now that sounds like a stunt spectacular. I'd like to slip and slide through that on an inner tube in a theme park setting, if you know what I mean. Do I know what I mean? More than 8,000 acres of Sochi National Park were cleared ahead of the games, burying rare wetlands under six feet of rubble.

Rio had already struggled with a raw sewage problem that rendered much of the city's water supply toxic and crawling with rotoviruses long before it hosted the Olympics. But despite seven years of knowing that the games were coming and that the summer Olympics feature a lot of water sports, the Brazilian government never fixed the problem,

putting the athletes' health in considerable danger. Not as much as standing near the javelin area, but everyone knows that's dangerous. Javelin on a prayer. Okay, so the Olympics are bad, it seems. They're bad for the place they're held, bad for governments, bad for human rights, and bad for the entire world.

But despite everything I've said over the past however many hours I've been talking, I'm actually not suggesting that we do away with the Olympics. They can be a lot of fun to watch, especially while drunk, but more importantly, they're uplifting and often inspiring, especially while drunk. Like the time two black American sprinters held their fists in the air to

echo through history. And look at Michael Phelps, who knew a human back could be so wide? How'd he do that? He looks like Starscream. But the games clearly can't continue the way they are, at least not for very much longer. There won't be any cities left who can afford to host them or even a planet. But luckily there are some straightforward fixes that could make the Olympics not just more sustainable but more consistent with its own stated values.

For example, we could significantly downscale the size of the event. Fewer athletes, fewer events, and fewer attendees all translates to a smaller ecological and industrial footprint. It also means less strain on the host city's infrastructure, resources, and population, and far fewer transportation-related emissions.

It's all gonna be streaming on Peacock anyway. You all have Peacock, right? It's the only streaming service with cock in the title. So plus one to that. We could also start rotating the Olympic Games between just a few pre-selected host cities that already have the infrastructure in place and don't need to embark on billions of dollars

in new construction projects, just so 1,000 people can watch a beach volleyball game. This one might actually happen all on its own actually, without any kind of activism or direct intervention, simply because it's getting significantly harder to find cities that are willing to host the Olympics. While hosting the games used to be relatively popular with local voters, spiraling costs, environmental concerns,

and the fact that the city might evict you because your house is the perfect spot for a discus pitch has all led to a considerable backlash. In 2015, Boston was considered the front runner to host the 2024 games, but the mayor shut down the process after a public outcry. Then Rome, Hamburg, and Budapest withdrew their bids, leaving just Paris and Los Angeles,

which were awarded the games for 2024 and 2028 respectively. And remember how the IOC awarded the 2022 Winter Games to Beijing despite international outcry over China's oppressive policies? Well, the games only landed there after a handful of other potential host cities pulled out of the process. The only options left were Beijing or Almaty, Kazakhstan,

another country with a spotty human rights record. There are also just fewer practical candidates to host the Winter Games because in a reverse Game of Thrones situation, Winter is leaving. That would have been a hell of a show, actually, right? Like all the White Walkers just leaving. That would almost be worse to see.

Where are they going? What's got them so spooked? Oh, I wanna watch that show. Anyway, the point is the climate is changing, not without help from the Olympics, mind you. And there simply isn't winter in enough places anymore to consistently host the Winter Games. One 2022 study projected that if emissions continue

on their current trajectory, all but one of the 21 cities that have hosted Winter Games will be too warm to host it again. Ultimately, the IOC might be forced to permanently settle the Winter Games in a handful of cities that get enough snow or have the kind of large indoor venues that could make it work. Seems bad.

We should probably look into that. If there's time. Even if the Olympics remains at its current gargantuan carbon belching scale and continues terrorizing our greatest world cities like a fit inspirational Kaiju, the IOC could still make a huge difference simply through more accountability

and better enforcement. And as of last year, that's what they're claiming to be doing. Mounting a push towards sustainability, the IOC announced some new guidelines in 2023 that it claims will be implemented in every Olympic games going forward. For instance, Paris will be selling sustainable food

during this summer's games, using primarily local ingredients to reduce the environmental cost of importing ingredients, hopefully cutting the carbon footprint of food by 50% and reducing the use of plastic. In 2020, Tokyo's Olympic Village was heated and powered by hydrogen, which doesn't produce any emissions, but will occasionally explode

if stuffed inside a Nazi blimp. Cities are also required to use existing structures to host the games and only build new ones when absolutely necessary. And in 2021, they pledged to plant 590,000 trees in Senegal and Mali. And that's nice. That's a good start if they actually stick to it

and can convince host cities to follow their guidelines as well. But who can say? In a way, this problem will probably fix itself. Either the Olympics reforms itself and actually gets better or it just becomes such a trash factory that we stop having them. So I don't know, if you like sports

and what the Olympics stand for, maybe you should want that first thing to happen instead of the thing where we just don't have them anymore. Personally, I don't care. But I have another plan, one that could solve all of this. Now hear me out. What if we all just pitched in to build one dedicated location to host the Olympics, an island maybe,

where all the Olympics are held, and every two years we fly our greatest champions in on a big airship, a flying bus perhaps, and they parachute down to the wilderness below to compete in the games. There would be buildings and stuff there already built for the tourists to simulate the experience of going to a new city. Maybe some cabins, shopping carts, bridges, a house in the middle of a lake, all the things you would want to have in an Olympic village. You'd probably want them to all have pickaxes, just in case, just in case, just in case,

we give them pickaxes, you know, they need to build a shelter or something if the accommodations aren't to their liking. I'll have to give them some guns too, in case there's bears. Maybe leave some guns lying around too, like a grenade or two or three, some grenades lying around. I think that could actually work. No, I think it must work actually. leave some guns lying around too? Like a grenade or two or three, some grenades lying around.

I think that could actually work. No, I think it must work actually. Also, can some of our guys be pizza guy and some of our guys be Iron Man? Ooh, or the Joker. He is twisted. Awesome. We did it. Great meeting everybody. And we'll implement this plan in two weeks, also known as a collection of 14 days.

Hey everybody, thanks for watching. Collection of 14 days. We've got a podcast called even more news We have got a merch store where you can buy merch you can buy sports shirts with your favorite team Warmbow on it or your second favorite team the rest of the cast and I think there's all the links we have the important thing is gold metal I think that's all the links we have. The important thing is gold medal. Fortnite, it's Fortnite.