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Myles Garcia. Secrets of the Olympic Ceremonies
Foreword
Chapter ONE. No Earthly Spectacle Quite Like It…
Chapter TWO. The Socialist Sports Machines
Chapter THREE. The Ueber-successful Games
Chapter FOUR. The Interim Years (1988–2000)
Chapter FIVE. The WOGs and YOGs
Chapter SIX. Welcome Home…to a Lake
Chapter SEVEN. Lighting the Torch
Chapter EIGHT. One World, One $150 Million Dream
Chapter NINE. Marching in the Nations…
Chapter TEN. Closings
Chapter ELEVEN. A Games for Everyone
Chapter TWELVE. New Frontiers
Chapter THIRTEEN. Wait, There’s More…
About the author
Отрывок из книги
I was never an Olympic athlete nor ever had any such aspirations but for some inexplicable, otherworldly reason, I was always drawn to the Opening Ceremony. Perhaps one preternatural claim I can make is that my two brothers and I were born in 1948, 1952 and 1956, respectively. My parents were by no means sports fans nor, even then, Olympic aficionados by any stretch. However, my brothers and I just got spaced out at four years apart and those coincidentally just happened to be Olympic years.
It must have been the flags, the speeches and songs, the invocation of spirits and ideals long passed, or the coming together of all the nations in one location that got to me. Ever since I viewed, understood and appreciated the first Games I ever saw, those of Mexico 1968, I was hooked! Four years later, I moved from Manila, the Philippines, where I grew up, to the U.S. However, just as I was adjusting and attempting to settle in, the hostage drama in Munich was unfolding…so it was difficult to enjoy those Games (and its minimal pageantry). But moving to the U.S. also allowed me to view the Winter Games (which I had no access to previously).
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Some 16 months before the selection date, the IOC whittles down the list to the Short List: 4 or 5 finalists for the Summer Games; and usually three for the Winter Games. Then the international phase commences. Up against the other foreign finalists, the cities wage a global campaign--bringing their show-and-tell acts to various international gatherings and sports events, chasing IOC members around the world to secure votes, and waging an international PR campaign.
At an IOC meeting seven years before the actual Games, the Olympic “family” comes together for their grand pow-wow (called a Session) and selects the next homecoming queen. At the time of writing, the IOC had just selected the city of PyeongChang South Korea as the host of the XXIIIrd Winter Games of 2018 over Munich, Germany and Annecy, France.
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