Olympics Week

SOUND OFF | The Olympics Gym Playlist

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With the 2018 Winter Olympics well underway, many have found inspiration to hit the gym and keep their New Year’s resolution well and alive. Here’s a playlist inspired by the music of the Olympics, whether it’s a song endorsed by athletes themselves or played during competition. Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Migos: Post-interview, Chloe Kim was asked what music she was listening to between her runs, and she responded with “Toxic” and “Paparazzi” by Britney Spears and Lady Gaga. Afterwards, she included “Motorsport” by Migos ft. Nicki Minaj and Cardi B as one of her pump-up songs.

Olympics Week

OF MARGINAL INTEREST | An Olympian Feat: the Economics of Hosting the Games

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As we speak, college students worldwide pull out their shotskis and ice luge molds in celebration of the most riveting quadrennial exercise in patriotism, team spirit, and demolition of self-worth—the Winter Olympics. This year’s games are being held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, a city of 40,000, of which only 35.6% were interested in the Winter Olympics, according to a survey taken last April by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. While the Games have proceeded swimmingly and the drone light show/technical precision/flagbearers (I’m looking at you, Tongan flag man) of the opening ceremony were spectacular, the potential $13 billion price tag for this year’s Olympics has raised some questions, particularly as Rio, host of the 2016 Summer Olympics, still faces $40 million in debt. Between Rio and Montreal, which took 30 years to pay off debt from its 1976 Olympic Games, a valid question can be raised: why do countries even want to host the Olympics? And when they do, how does it work out for them economically?

Olympics Week

ON MY MIND | In PyeongChang, a Vision of Korean Peace

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I haven’t seen Black Panther yet, but I know enough of the story’s basic premise — what might an African nation, untouched by centuries of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade, look like in the 20th/21st century? — to use it as a generative point of speculation within my own interests in the history of the Korean War and its aftermath. Thinking, then, along the lines of the Wakanda’s Afrofuturism, I’m prompted to ask a similar question as I watch the international spectacle and geopolitical maneuvering of the 2018 Winter Olympics unfold in Pyeongchang: what might the Korean peninsula look like today if it had never been invaded and brutalized by the United States? But wait, you might be asking, when did the United States ever invade Korea? Didn’t the U.S. military defend the South against the evil Communist regime of the North?

Olympics Week

SUNSPOTS | What Are You Most Excited About for the Olympics?

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Jacqueline Quach ’19: The flashy figure skating outfits! Where else can one appreciate such brightly colored, such meticulously designed and bedazzled fashions? Eunnuri Yi ’20: I’m most excited for all of the nationalism-tinged drama that will inevitably ensue in skating!  I’m not excited about the (also inevitably?) inaccurate and distorted news coverage on Korea, which has already started! 😡 A real quick and should-be obvious fact check: The Olympics are happening in PyeongChang, South Korea — NOT Pyongyang, which is in North Korea. Griffin Smith-Nichols ’19: I am excited to see Iceland’s 5 athletes sweep the board with the rest of the world’s 2,947. Áfram Ísland!

Travel

BANDI | RIO DE JANEIRO – OLYMPICS, ART, AND A STROLL THROUGH THE STREETS

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As our Uber weaved its way through the busy streets of Rio de Janeiro, the signs of the recent Olympic Games were littered everywhere. Although the banners had been taken down a month prior, logos announcing “Rio 2016” were still stamped across roads; huge signs strung across souvenir shops boasted their Games-themed merchandise; freshly-painted murals covered building walls. Along one line of storefronts, a series of circus-style paintings illustrated the Games—Athens, Beijing, London, Rio and, finally, Tokyo.  

After five years of preparation and over 500,000 visitors, you’d think the city would be ready for a break. But the citizens of Rio are used to the spotlight, and it seems like they barely have time to take a breath before plunging into their next world spectacle: the annual Carnival.