The Sydney Summer Games may be the last of its size. IOC president Jacques Rogge warned that the Games risked becoming a victim of its own success and must be scaled down. Rogge said the first stage of reducing the cost and size of the Olympics will begin at the extraordinary session of the IOC to be held in Mexico in November. He added that the scale of the Games is a threat to their quality. “In a way they risk becoming a victim of their own success”, He said.
What’s an Olympic Games without protesters? The Salt Lake Games are no exception and protesters dressed as “Mitt the cow” will greet the Olympics, and Salt Lake Organizing Committee Head Mitt Romney, in Salt Lake City to protest a rodeo to be held alongside the Games. Representatives against abortion, chastity advocates, animal-rights activists, and Chinese dissidents will also be there to publicize their causes.
Afghanistan won’t be represented by athletes or delegates during the Winter Games, despite several Afghan-American organizations urging the IOC to make some gesture toward Afghanistan at the Games. Director general Francois Carrard said the IOC had opened discussions with new government leadership in Kabul and hoped to eventually welcome the Afghans back.
If you want to watch the Games on the Internet, forget about it. The International Olympic Committee is banning Internet audio and video footage of the Games. Only still photos will be available online.
And finally, if you’re a Swedish Olympian and win a medal at the Salt Lake Games, the medal won’t be your only reward. Swedish medalists will also be given a plot of real estate on the moon. Moon Shop, owned by United States lunar entrepreneur Dennis Hope, has decided to give each Swedish medalist his or her own lunar real estate. Goeran Soederstedt of the company’s Swedish branch told AFP, “the one-acre (0.4 hectare) plot is normally sold for 330 kronor (approximately $49.28 Can.) But the winning athletes will also be made honorary citizens of the first Scandinavian settlement on the moon, so the actual value is much higher”, he said.
