It’s been a long wait, but the 2024 Paris Olympics are underway, and medals are already being awarded to those who are ready to claim their place in history. However, when tens of thousands of people come together from around the world, countless opportunities emerge not just for competition and camaraderie but also for smiles and giggles. And who can better capitalize on them if not the internet? So, to give you something to do during the commercial breaks between events, we’ve gathered the best funny memes we’ve gotten about the Games so far. However, hosting the quadrennial summer and winter events comes at a cost. And, especially in recent decades, the spectacle has been blemished by budget overruns, long-term debts, wasteful infrastructure, displacement and gentrification, political strife, and environmental harm.
“This will be the first Olympics, since Sydney, where the total costs are coming in under $10 billion,” Victor Matheson, a College of the Holy Cross professor of economics who has researched the financial costs of the Olympics, told CNN. “That’s because the IOC was running out of cities willing to host this thing,” he explained. “It’s become pretty clear to cities that — under the old regime — these were real financial debacles for the cities involved, and wildly expensive with little hope to make money back in the long run.” For example, after the 1968 Mexico City Games and 1972 Munich Games were marked by deadly violence and the 1976 Montreal Games experienced dramatic cost overruns, there were hardly any takers to serve as a host city for the 1984 Games.
The icing on the cake was that the LA Organizing Committee ended up with a surplus of $215 million.
This includes building only one permanent sports facility (a low-carbon, bio-based aquatics center designed for future use by the public and French Olympians alike) and relying instead on existing or temporary structures that take the sport outside of the stadiums and show off the city’s famous monuments.
Additionally, the Paris Olympic Village will be converted into offices and housing in a historically impoverished neighborhood. (However, it’s worth pointing out that the efforts have raised concerns about displacing thousands of people and negative gentrification impacts.)
But before we make such bold changes, let’s see how Paris manages to do it.
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