August 26, 2021

The Olympics Continue

By roads-rus

If you didn’t get enough sports coverage during the Tokyo Olympics, take heart. The Paralympics continue. They will not end until September 5, 2021. You can watch live on your computer if many commercials don’t bother you, and NBC is doing a good job of covering these many events is several formats and configurations.

Ruth & I personally got our fill of the subject when we visited the new Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs on August 3 of this year. It’s situated in a beautifully reclaimed part of downtown Colorado Springs at 200 South Sierra Madre Street.

Fourteen athletes from the United States participated in Athens at the resumed Olympic Games in 1896, and eight years later many active athletes traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, during its famous World’s Fair to compete in the 3rd modern Olympic Games between July 1st and November 23. The 2nd reincarnation of the Olympics occurred in Paris, France, in 1900. Because St. Louis, my old hometown, was a remote destination in 1904, many of the world’s best athletes did not attend these games. The United States benefited. Americans won 95 gold medals and 230 medals in all. China is currently ahead in Tokyo but fortunes change.

lgary saw at least 4 bobsleds in the new Colorado Olympic Museum. They reminded me of the bobsleigh that our family rode in the Canadian city of Calgary shortly after it hosted the Summer Olympics in 1988. What a memorable experience!

I was not aware of it, but this new Olympic Museum is so state-of-the art that it uses RFID technology to limit the number of guests in any exhibit. This relieves congestion and makes for a better overall experience. I also marveled at the beautiful pedestrian bridge that crosses some ancient railroad tracks to connect this museum to a city park. This museum was designed by Diller, Scofidio and Renfro, the same firm that gave us The Shed, the new arts center in New York’s Hudson Yards. It may be the most accessible and user friendly museum ever constructed. See it on your travels.

Towards the end of this fine museum there are several Paralympic displays of interest, an acknowledgment of some events that the Olympics are not proud of like the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan kerfuffle, and even a tribute to sports painter LeRoy Neiman. Literally nothing has been left out of this Olympic experience.

Hank

About roads-rus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roads-rus
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