Calgary sends Olympic committee a vital message

The Olympic Games are like a grand, imposing statue that seems shining and beautiful — but only until you get up close and realize it’s covered in muck and tarnish.

The citizens of Calgary, who last week killed their city’s bid to host the 2026 Winter Games, saw all that muck and tarnish for themselves and couldn’t get over it. And in the process, they sent the people running these incredible but deeply flawed athletic extravaganzas a vital message.

The Olympics are a fantastic idea. They’re worth participating in. But the staggering financial costs and lasting disadvantages of hosting what has become a bloated, two-week circus are simply too great. As for the benefits of doing so, they’re too fleeting and limited to a lucky few.

That’s what the 56 per cent of Calgarians who voted in last week’s Olympic plebiscite essentially told their civic leaders — and the International Olympic Committee. That result, initially at least, seemed shocking. Calgary had played happy host to the wildly successful 1988 Winter Games. The fact that many sporting venues remaining from those Games could be reused in a future competition made the proposition seem a bargain.

Meanwhile, the pro-Winter Games movement was led by prominent Calgarians, such as Mayor Naheed Nenshi, and a richly-funded “Yes” campaign. Unfortunately, for those nostalgic cheerleaders, they overlooked everything that’s happened since the halcyon days of 1988.

The spectacular downturn in Alberta’s oil industry has left the province’s economy gasping for air. A quarter of Calgary’s office space sits empty. Given that Alberta was expected to provide $700 million for these Games and their city was supposed to ante up another $390 million, no wonder most Calgarians sensibly said “No.” They have better uses for that kind of cash.

Even so, money wasn’t the only reason for the rejection. The International Olympic Committee’s reputation has rightly taken a pounding as it lurched through a series of bribery and corruption scandals. It seems distant and arrogant.

Its failure to end the use of banned, performanceenhancing drugs has eroded its credibility — along with the integrity of the competition itself. And given that the IOC rakes in billions of dollars by selling broadcast and licensing rights, why doesn’t it shell out more to leave a positive, lasting legacy for its hosts?

Calgary is not the only city to reach this conclusion. There are other canaries in the Olympic mineshaft.

Even before Calgary’s Olympic bid ended as a flaming wreck last week, four other cities that once expressed interest in playing host had pulled out. Today, only Stockholm and Milan remain in the running. Fewer and fewer cities are stepping forward to host the Summer Games, too. The burning question now is whether the IOC will have the wits to learn from this growing civic rebellion. Let’s hope it does.

There is indisputable merit in the Olympic ideal, which seeks to assemble the world’s best athletes in a secure and friendly environment. The jaw-dropping athleticism so often on display as well as the meeting of so many nations, cultures and faiths in one place and one competition — all this is truly inspiring.

But the IOC must enact fundamental changes. It must, through swift, meaningful action, honour the Olympic ideal while ending the movement’s uglier realities.

If it does this, if it scrubs the tarnish and muck from the Games, it will do the world an invaluable service. Whatever happens going forward, the people of Calgary deserve applause for saying “No,” while prodding the IOC to do what’s right.