All along, the good people in Eugene, Oregon, have said that the dream has been to grow the sport of track and field in the United States of America. Follow the logic. That means: Eugene as the base but, you know, get it out of Eugene.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Track & Field made it emphatic: dreams can come true.
The 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials in track and field will be in Los Angeles, at Mt. San Antonio College, the USOC and USATF announced.
SACRAMENTO, California — Five years ago, on the last night of July, Bruce Springsteen played an epic show in Helsinki, more than four hours, his longest show ever.
He and the E Street Band played 33 songs, one of which, My City of Ruins, ran to 18 minutes and 26 seconds. That song, as Bruce describes it that night, was originally written about his New Jersey hometown “trying to get back on its feet” but had since become about so much more: “what you lose, what you hold onto, the spirits that remain forever and the things you have to let go.”
Before Rod Stewart got all weird, writing stuff like Da Ya Think I’m Sexy, or doing lovestruck Van Morrison covers, like Have I Told You Lately, he did some pretty cool songs, like 1971’s Every Picture Tells a Story.
Don’t it?
The International Olympic Committee’s would-be reform plan, Agenda 2020, is purportedly all about less-is-more.
You can like Donald Trump. You can not like Donald Trump. To be clear: I did not vote for the gentleman. Whatever. When the president of the United States of America meets with the president of the International Olympic Committee at the White House, that is a good day for the Olympic movement.
Let us all understand the gravity of what happened Thursday. Put emotion aside. Think strategically. What is in the best interest of the Olympic movement, and of the IOC? Answer: having good relations with the governments of the world. Russia is a great country and a great Olympic power. China is a great country and a great Olympic power. But, people, let’s be real.
Do you want to know why nine cities have dropped out of the running for the 2022, 2024 and 2026 races for the Olympic Games?
Why only Los Angeles and Paris are left for 2024 and the International Olympic Committee is all but certain this summer to award both the 2024 and 2028 Games to those two, order yet to be determined?
Because the 2016 Rio Games are just the latest super-expensive Olympics and because the IOC, in attempting to explain billions in spending tied to an Olympic Games, issues a statement that’s filled with inconsistencies and double-speak.
Last September, I became the very first person on Planet Earth to propose publicly that the International Olympic Committee award the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games at a single stroke. On Friday, the IOC’s policy-making executive board took me up on my suggestion.
Now let’s see, despite indications to the contrary, whether the IOC can get the order right.
At issue is way more than the 2024 and 2028 Games. At stake is the direction, if not the very future, of the Olympic movement in the 21st century.
It was of course Nelson Mandela who told us all something so simple, so eloquent and so powerful.
“Sport,” he said, “has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to inspire to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair …”
Last weekend, a car-and-knife rampage on London Bridge left eight people dead and dozens injured. Afterward, political, governmental and faith leaders issued calls for solidarity and resolve amid this latest act of terrorism in western Europe.