Trending Now
We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
{{ subpage.title }}
The Graphic Truth: Olympic champs of budget overruns
With a current budget of $3.9 billion, the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics will be relatively cheap by modern standards for the Games. The cost of Tokyo 2020 was almost twice the initial budget, and doesn't even count infrastructure spending. Indeed, cost overruns are a given for the Olympics, which since 1960 have always gone over budget — roughly by 173 percent on average. Given that national governments end up footing most of the bill, it's no surprise that in recent years fewer cities have competed to host the Games, and that Brisbane's 2032 bid was unopposed. We rank the last 16 Olympics by how much their final cost exceeded their initial budget.
Politics, protest & the Olympics: the IOC’s Dick Pound
With COVID rates rising globally, this year's Olympics faced some major hurdles. But the pandemic was only part of the picture. The Tokyo Games played out against a backdrop of mounting global tension surrounding gender equality, racism and human rights, leaving many people to examine the place of politics on the playing field and podium. On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer looks at the long history of protest at the Games with Dick Pound, the longest serving member of the International Olympic Committee and a former Olympic athlete himself. Plus: the US Women's National Soccer Team is the most decorated team in the sport, but are they paid as much as their male counterparts? A look at what equal pay for equal play means.
- How political sports boycotts (really) work - GZERO Media ›
- Olympics corner: Refugees - GZERO Media ›
- Signal quiz: Olympics trivia! - GZERO Media ›
- The Graphic Truth: Olympic champs of budget overruns - GZERO ... ›
- Biden's exit overshadows Netanyahu's US visit - GZERO Media ›
- At the 2024 Paris Olympics, security fears and logistical challenges abound - GZERO Media ›
- Could the Olympics ever be free of politics? - GZERO Media ›
- Ian Explains: Why authoritarian rulers love the Olympics - GZERO Media ›
Dick Pound: Olympics successful despite COVID tensions
Before the Olympics, most Japanese people were against the Games due to fear of COVID. As the tournament got on, the International Olympic Committee's Dick Pound says that most resistance vanished, but some resentment still lingers among Tokyo's residents. "There's that tension, that still exists, but it's not interfering with the sport," Pound tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.
Watch this episode on US public television - check local listings.
The Graphic Truth: Who's done better than projected at Tokyo?
We expect the usual suspects — US, China, Russia — to dominate the Olympic medal tally. But how should the performances of large, well-resourced countries really be assessed? Drawing on a model first developed by a team of labor economists, the Financial Times looks at a range of factors — including past medal hauls, population size, and GDP per capita — to determine whether nations have surpassed or failed to meet expectations at the Tokyo Games. We take a look at the biggest under-performers and over-performers per the model, and whether people in these countries really care about the Olympics at all.
Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso celebrates with his national flag after winning bronze at Tokyo 2020.
Olympics corner: Independence Day bronze
Whenever Burkina Faso is in the news, it's often about how the country - no stranger to crisis - has got caught up in the crosshairs of horrific jihadist violence plaguing the Sahel.
But this week, the nation of 20 million was celebrating because Hugues Fabrice Zango won its first-ever Olympic medal after finishing third in the men's triple jump in Tokyo.
What's more, Zango did it on the 61st anniversary of Burkina Faso's independence from France.
"It's not the medal I wanted, but it's good for Burkina Faso and it's historic. Burkina Faso is really happy. Everybody is happy," Zango said after the event. The president later congratulated him on Twitter: "Bravo champion."
Zango, who's currently pursuing a doctorate in electrical engineering, says he'll try to win gold in Paris 2024.
Olympics corner: Sumos spook the horses
Equestrian jumpers, and their horses, are disciplined species. They don't appreciate surprises very much.
But many participants were caught off guard during this week's individual jumping qualifiers in Tokyo by a very daunting statue of a sumo wrestler on the hurdle course (which is dotted with statues paying homage to traditional Japanese culture, like geisha kimonos, cherry blossoms, and taiko drums).
Jumpers had to clear 14 hurdles, and the sumo, stationed at hurdle 10, caused quite a stir. "Hunched over and seemingly ready to attack, the wrestler is facing away from approaching riders, meaning that when they complete a sharp turn to take on the jump, the first thing horse and human see is the wedgie created by the wrestler's mawashi," the Washington Postwrote.
The statue spooked several horses, and jumpers incurred penalty points as a result. Fun fact: American rider Jessica Springsteen, daughter of a certain famed musician called Bruce, was knocked out of the event after her horse knocked down a rail after confronting the sumo statue.
Boxed meals for South Korean Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games athletes are pictured at a hotel in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan.
Olympics corner: Radioactive food, anyone?
Talk about atomic (spicy Korean) wings.
Japan says all food being served at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is absolutely safe to eat, even if some ingredients may come from a region with, let's say, a troubled nuclear past.
But since arriving in Tokyo, South Korean athletes have been screening all their meals for traces of radiation from Fukushima, which in 2011 was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. The athletes' caution comes as Seoul, along with Beijing, are officially furious at Japan for dumping treated radioactive wastewater from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean.
The Japanese insist the water has been treated, but just in case the South Koreans have banned the import of all foodstuffs from Fukushima.
And to play it safe, the South Korean Olympic delegation has rented an entire hotel outside of the Olympic Village to cook its meals separately, drawing snarky remarks on Japanese social media.Accreditation card of Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya is seen at Haneda international airport in Tokyo, Japan August 1, 2021
Olympics corner: Belarusian defection
It was a weird series of events. Belarusian sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya took to Instagram to lament that her country's Olympic Committee had registered her for the 4x400 relay event at the eleventh hour (because a fellow participant had failed to pass drug screenings) despite not having trained.
Timanovskaya said her public statement got her barred from running in her next planned event, the individual 200 race, and that she feared for her safety were she to return home — and for good reason: The Belarus Olympic committee is overseen by one Viktor Lukashenko, politician and son of iron-fisted President Alexander Lukashenko, who does not tolerate any dissent. In fact, the International Olympic Committee had previously banned Lukashenko senior and junior from attending the Games in person because of the family's dismal human rights record.
Japan, notoriously inhospitable to asylum applicants, didn't offer Timanovskaya a helping hand, although Poland did give her a visa on humanitarian grounds. She will fly to Warsaw on Wednesday.