Denver olympics logoI read in horror that the Winter Olympics for 2022 had been awarded to no other than Beijing, China.  Say what?  Didn’t they just have an Olympics — a Summer Olympics?  Does it even snow in Beijing?  Does anyone even care if it snows, or recreate on snow in any shape or fashion?  I went on to read that they average eight total inches of snow during wintertime in the mountains.  There’s a lovely picture taken from this past January of the barren slopes where the alpine skiing events will be held.  They’re going to make all their snow from reservoirs that farmers and residents depend on for water use.  Making snow is also quite dependent on sustained sub-freezing temperatures.  (And for those of us who regularly ski in Colorado, man-made snow is not the same thing!) Great idea….  Apparently the International Olympic Committee has sunk to new lows, and when deciding on where a Winter Olympics should be held, the area’s winter weather patterns of natural snow falling out of the sky is low on the priority list.  I feel sorry for the athletes who train for years to compete in such conditions….And I thought a Winter Olympics in the maritime city of Sochi was bad.

The weird thing about it, is it those 2022 Winter Olympics just as easily could have been held in Colorado.  For several years, there was talk of submitting a bid for Denver to host the 2022 Olympics.  In 2012, a formal planning committee convened to explore the idea, detailing costs and infrastructure needed, and unanimously decided to pursue a bid for the 2022 Olympics.  In addition to copious amounts of snow, Colorado has a lot going for it in terms of hosting the Olympics — a stadium (Denver Broncos) to hold opening and closing ceremonies, ski jumping venue in nearby Steamboat Springs(where US team trains), and world-class alpine and nordic resorts to hold skiing events.  It was enthusiastically supported by both the Governor and Mayor of Denver, and over 70 percent of voters were in favor (limited survey).  But it was actually the U.S. Olympic Committee who put the kibosh on submitting any bid from the United States towards hosting the Winter Games.  In hindsight, given that it came down to a choice between Beijing (of no snow), and Kazakhstan (of third world), Denver seems like it would have been a shoe-in to win the bidding process.

As a Coloradoan, I have often wondered if the USOC’s decision not to pursue a bid had more to do with some Olympic history that sheds an unfavorable light on Colorado.  In 1970, Denver was awarded the 1976 Winter Olympics games by the IOC.  Over the next two years, opposition to hosting the Games started to build led by a young politician, Dick Lamm.  As is true today, the biggest concern for local residents and taxpayers, was the cost involved in building the infrastructure needed.  The IOC stated it wouldn’t hold the games in Denver, unless public funding was available to help pay the costs.  At the center of the controversy, a mere 5 million dollars, which is chump change compared to the billions that are usually spent today (the Sochi Olympics cost 51 billion dollars). In November, 1972, a proposition was put on the ballot to have voters approve a 5 million bond.  Voters resoundingly rejected it by a 60 to 40 percent margin.  A week later, the Olympic dream for Denver had died and the Games were ultimately moved to Innsbruck, Austria and the rest is history.

The great irony of this story is what Coloradans ultimately lost out on.  Though they would have had to put up 5 million dollars (and who are we kidding, probably a lot more), they would have gained valuable infrastructure that would have been a great foundation for the development we’ve had in the last 40 years.  Because transportation is so critical to hosting an Olympic games, the light rail that we so desperately need, the expansion of I-70 and possible train service to the mountain ski resorts would certainly have been part of the Olympic building plan.  In short, the things that we are spending probably 20 times as much for now  would have been built to host the Games, and would have benefited us residents for decades to come.  Every time I sit in a traffic jam on I-70, I think about this – shoulda, coulda, woulda.

Many believe this slap in the face to the IOC is what has kept Colorado from putting in another bid.  The joke on the street is that we have to wait it out until the last remaining member of the IOC from 1970s is gone, and people have forgotten about this Olympic faux pas.  The Denver Committee is still interested and is hoping to submit a bid for 2026.  But who knows, maybe the wheel will come full circle, and some planning calamity in Beijing will lead to Colorado ultimately getting the 2022 Olympics — that would be true serendipity.  And one thing is for sure, at least during winter, we get snow.

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