Monthly Archives: January 2024

Orlando Hosts Olympic Marathon Trials. Big Olympic Dreams Follow?

By Ed Hula

An inevitable question for Orlando leaders this weekend as the city hosts the 2024 Olympic marathon trials is whether this could be a prelude to a bid for the big prize – a Summer Olympics in the Beautiful City.

Assuming all goes well with the race on February 3, government leaders and boosters of sport and tourism in central Florida could be thinking about how Orlando might host a Summer Olympics one day. But with 10,500 athletes from 200+ countries, the summer Games are a big leap from the 374 runners in the Olympic marathon trials.  Instead of one day of competition, the Olympics mean hundreds of thousands of spectators filling venues for 17 days straight.

Florida Assets Boost Readiness

Central Florida already plays host to millions of visitors each year so Olympic sized crowds should be easy to handle. Nonetheless the trials will give Orlando the chance to see how the pieces for an Olympic-class event fit together. Security, volunteers, and transportation, along with the crowds that will line the race route, will all get the chance to shine. It will perhaps ignite dreams of something bigger.

While the idea of an Olympics in Florida may sound far-fetched, Orlando would not be the first to lodge a bid for the Games. That distinction goes to Tampa, one of a half dozen US cities at the turn-of-the-century seeking to be the US nominee to go for the 2012 Olympics eventually awarded to London.

As the world’s leading tourist destination, Orlando is unmatched for accommodations. Sports venues dot the state from St. Pete/Tampa to Orlando and Miami. The Orange County Convention Center is big enough to hold several of the 30+ sports on the Olympic program. These cities are now connected by Brightline passenger rail, which also was just a dream when Tampa wanted the Games.

Get In Line for Olympic Bid

With Los Angeles picked to hold the 2028 Summer Games and a number of other locales around the globe already in line, another Florida bid won’t happen anytime soon. It could easily be 20 or more years before any U.S. city hosts the quadrennial event. Countries in Africa, Asia and Europe are likely to hold the Olympics ahead of the next chance for the U.S.

That kind of timetable should keep aspirations in Orlando on the humble side. There’s no rush to make big plans, and every reason to build slowly toward an Olympic future in Central Florida.

Olympics=Sustainability

The IOC has heard the complaints of critics about the cost and complexity of the Olympics. No longer does it expect newly built arenas or extravagant infrastructure just for the Games. Sustainability is key. Paris 2024 will build just one venue for this year’s Games. LA, in 2028, won’t build any.

An Orlando Olympics could turn the campus of the University of Central Florida into an Olympic Village, much like Atlanta did with Georgia Tech in 1996. Los Angeles will use the dorms at UCLA for its village. In 1984, LA Olympians were housed on the campus of USC.

At the moment, the Florida economy is strong and growing. Should it continue, Olympics organizers would find it relatively easy to sell tickets in the state besides the national and international markets. On the sponsorship side there should be plenty of national as well as Florida-based companies eager to fill sponsorship categories.

Stormy Weather Big Risk

The Olympics come with risk. Maybe those sponsorship sales don’t meet the revenue target. The pandemic could strike, which in 2020 forced the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics by one year, at great extra cost. But in Florida the biggest risk for a smooth running Olympic Games could be weather.

The dates for the Games normally fall in July and August, which for Florida could mean dangerous heat for athletes and visitors alike. It’s also the rainy season when thunderstorms could interrupt competition on a daily basis. And then there is the possibility of tropical storms and hurricanes. Factor the still evolving effects of climate change on the Sunshine State and meteorological conditions could be a dealbreaker.

New Gens Will Decide

The Olympics might seem a good idea for those looking at Orlando and the region in the years ahead. But the decision to go for the Olympics likely won’t be made by anyone in charge today. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer may be the longest serving in the city’s history, but he probably won’t be around to help 25 years from now.

Whether in Orlando or another city, the next Olympics in the U.S. after Los Angeles will be the domain of new generations. Millennials, Generations X and Z and their children being born now — will hold the reins of power when it becomes time to decide whether to bid for a mid-century Olympics in Orlando or any other U.S. city.

Fly Me to the Moon

A tantalizing final thought about the possibility of an Olympics in Florida: the U.S. has embarked on an ambitious program to return to the moon. Plans include colonization and commercial exploitation of space for manufacturing and communications.

I have speculated that as lunar colonies become routine, the notion of some form of physical activity would be part of living healthy on the cratered orb. So too might be Olympic-styled events in conjunction with the Games on Earth. Imagine the events that might be held on a lunar base: high jumps that are truly spectacular in low gravity; same for the long jump. Gymnastics would be out of this world.

In 25 years the timing could be right for Olympics on the moon. And what better place to mark this space first than from Central Florida, launching pad for U.S. galactic endeavors. Imagine the Olympic rings displayed on the VAB at the Kennedy Space Center, or floating above the moon’s horizon.

This weekend in Orlando the dreams may not be so grandiose as Olympics on the moon. But the quest of three men and three women to make the U.S. marathon team for the Paris Olympics will still be close to a superhuman task — for each of them, perhaps, a feat as mighty as reaching the moon.

Orlando for an Olympics? It begins with a dream.

Ed Hula is a resident of Mount Dora. He has covered the Olympics as a journalist and radio, TV and print since 1988.

He can be reached at edhula@hulasportcommunications.com.

AI, Digital Revolution Propels Olympic Storytelling

Artificial Intelligence and digital technology are reshaping the experience of watching the Olympic Games for spectators around the globe. The democratization of Olympic storytelling will be the result says the head of the IOC’s broadcasting arm. The proving ground for this technological shift: the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon Province of South Korea, now in its final days.

Olympic Broadcast Services CEO Yiannis Exarchos calls the winter YOG “an incubator for innovation” for OBS.  The Madrid-based company owned by the IOC is responsible for producing the video and audio signals used by broadcasters and online content producers covering the Games.

“It’s very difficult to be testing many things during the Games, he said during a media briefing this week from the Winter YOG. He says it’s much better to try out new technologies during a lower key event like the YOG instead of debuting at the Summer Olympics, which are five times the size of the winter or summer YOG. “You have to go with very mature technologies. So for us these [Winter YOG] are very special. You’ll see things already being implemented in only a few months for the Games in Paris,” said the OBS chief.

One of these new technologies is a virtual broadcast van.  Instead of a truck packed with servers and other equipment, the virtual van provides all that via software and Cloud-based connections. IOC sponsors Intel and Alibaba are closely involved.  The result, Exarchos says, is a smaller footprint, more cost-effective production and greater flexibility. Fewer staff will be needed as well.

First used in 2022 during the Winter Games in Beijing, the virtual van was trialed for the curling competition. In Gangwon it’s being used for ice hockey as well. In Paris the virtual van will help produce the coverage of judo, wrestling, tennis and shooting.

Exarchos said the digital revolution has meant lower costs of production well beyond the virtual van. Production of nearly half of the OBS Games coverage is handled at OBS headquarters in Madrid. That means fewer staff at the Games, whether the YOG or full-scale Olympics with 10,500 athletes. A smaller International Broadcast Center is also a cost-saving benefit of digital production. Once a mammoth venue, the IBC shrank by 23% from Rio 2016 to Tokyo 2020. In Paris, the IBC will be 13% smaller than in Tokyo. The IBC in Paris is also expected to reduce its power needs by nearly three-quarters from the Rio venue.

Artificial intelligence will also play a role in efficient and sustainable Games, Exarchos said. Ice hockey in Gangwon is providing a test of this technology.  He says AI isn’t ready for Paris. But he sees a day when AI driven cameras are used to cover early rounds of competition and sports that may be not as popular as athletics, swimming or gymnastics.

Exarchos notes that AI is already helping to generate highlights and summaries from the Olympic competition. With OBS providing coverage of 33 sports in Paris in nine languages, he says the need is great for AI to help deliver speedy results across the various digital platforms of the IOC. Speaking alongside Exarchos, IOC director of digital media and marketing Leandro Larrosa says that quick delivery is needed for an online audience that he expects instant results.

Asked about the dark side of AI which produces fakes, misinformation and other falsehoods for mass consumption, Exarchos says the IOC “will always err on protection and caution”. He says AI needs a structure of regulation in place that sets standards and boundaries for the use of this technology. The deliberations about these questions may be “the most important public conversation in the next years around the world”.

Larrosa says the uptake online so far for these Winter YOG is strong. Traffic for these games is up over 1.6 percent from Lausanne 2020, the preceding Winter YOG. He says that number is significant as these Games are taking place in a time zone far removed from the large audiences for winter sports.

“It is truly remarkable that our content is drawing more users than Lausanne,” he said at the media briefing.

Overall Larrosa calls the IOC’s digital presence one of the strongest among sports worldwide. He says there were 115 million users of the IOC digital platforms in 2023, some 28% higher than 2022. Notable is the fact that 2022 was an Olympic year, surpassed in numbers for 2023, without the boost of the Olympics.

In the wake of the digital revolution and adoption of AI, Exarchos says he would be “one of the richest man on Earth” if he could successfully predict the next technology breakthrough adopted for Olympic broadcasting.  Right now he says the mission is to harness the new technologies to drive powerful story telling.

“Deep down, for us at OBS, the single most important thing in relationship to technology is again, storytelling, because this is a very unique human characteristic. I think we perceive reality and we imagine the future though listening to stories. This is also something we constantly try to do in the Olympic Games.

“The reason why the Olympic Games are so attractive and remain so attractive I think for large audiences, actually in Paris, half of the world’s population will engage with the Games, is people still get inspired by the stories of these incredible people who are the athletes of the world.

“For me the key point is to allow technology to help us to tell human stories in a more compelling, in a more authoritative, more inspirational way. What I feel is that there may be a shift in the future and we all should be welcoming that. That would be in finding ways people out there have the capacity to actually  influence and become part of this storytelling. So to really use the capacity of digital technology. We have the capacity to collect individual reactions.

“For me this opportunity is fascinating because it can lead to a gradual complete democratization of storytelling, the participation of every single person in this human commonality that is the Olympic Games”.