Monday 25 November 2013

Will Questions About the Readiness of the 2024 Olympics be Asked in Time?

Just 11 years away now, there are concerns that nobody has asked whether the stadiums for the 2024 Olympics will be ready in time.

Questions about whether hosts are ready for major sporting events are always asked well in advance of the games themselves. For example, the Guardian was asking whether the London Olympics would be late, as early as 2006. And the Japanese, with their characteristic efficiency, are already causing people to worry about the Tokyo Olympics. The Russians could be guaranteed to raise concerns nice and early before the 2018 World Cup, of course.

The questions as to whether the Athens Olympics stadiums were ready were asked very late indeed - indeed, the Telegraph only pulled its finger out and started asking about Athens 2004 as late as May in that year. But the concerns about whether Qatar can hold the World Cup in 2022 are already well on track.

In Brazil, things are well on track for both the upcoming events. Worries about the building of stadiums for the 2014 World Cup are coming along nicely, while doubts about the 2016 Olympics are also being expressed.

But there has been no concern at all about the 2024 Olympics. Nobody has worried, no articles have been written. This might be because we don't know where they will be yet, but that shouldn't stop the papers getting on with the project. After all, they worry about every other event - why let a little thing like not knowing who the host will be, slow things down? But if questions aren't raised soon, there is a danger that nobody may ask them at all.

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