Step by step, jump by jump, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are coming to an end. In just a couple of days, the athletes will abandon their 'anti-sex' cardboard beds and return to their normal regime. If we consider tirelessly maxing out your human capabilities normal, that is.
So, we at Bored Panda decided it's the perfect time to put together a new list of memes that sum up this amazing spectacle. Continue scrolling to check out the pictures and catch up on the series here.
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In 2013, when it bid for the 2020 Summer Games, Tokyo estimated it would spend $7.3 billion. However, by summer 2020, an Oxford economist told the Associated Press that Tokyo’s costs had already more than doubled to $15.84 billion and became the most expensive Summer Games on record. Local organizers have disputed that number but they admitted in December 2019 that costs had risen to $12.6 billion.
Competing estimates from a national audit board and national newspaper are even higher, saying it could be nearly $30 billion.
Of course, these Olympics are special. The city had to postpone the Games for a year after Covid-19 made hosting the international event impossible, and to top it all off, the city won’t receive the tourism boom that usually accompanies the event.
But a 2020 paper by Oxford economist Bent Flyvbjerg discovered an interesting fact: "every Olympics since 1960 has run over budget, at an average of 172 percent in real terms, the highest overrun on record for any type of megaproject."
In other words, there might be something wrong with the Olympics bidding process as a whole.
As Vox pointed out, some of the supposed benefits of hosting the Olympics have come under scrutiny by locals and economists alike. Economists Victor Matheson and Robert Baade outlined the potential benefits as "the short-run benefits of tourist spending during the Games; the long-run benefits of the ‘Olympic legacy’ which might include improvements in infrastructure and increased trade, foreign investment or tourism after the Games; and intangible benefits such as the ‘feel-good effect’ or civic pride."
The Games can also provide a brief employment benefit and stimulative effect. But it's not as significant as we might think: "Overwhelmingly, the studies show actual economic impacts that are either near-zero or a fraction of that predicted prior to the event," Matheson and Baade write.
Pacific University professor Jules Boykoff criticized the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for running itself like a "profit-gobbling cartel."
"For too long, the IOC has claimed that the city doesn’t have to build new infrastructure, that it’s the city’s decision. Of course, host cities have to build new venues if they actually want to host the Games. Whitewater kayak venues don’t grow on trees," Boykoff wrote in a 2017 Los Angeles Times column. "In truth, the IOC chips in for operating costs by essentially laundering money from its lucrative corporate sponsorships and television rights deals. That’s all well and good, but it’s time the organization stepped up and contributed to infrastructure costs as well."
As the Tokyo Olympics plays out in virtually empty stadiums, the IOC will continue raking in profits but it's the Japanese people who will have to pay the bill.
What was funnier was parenthetically describing equestrian dressage as "horse dancing."
I really wish they would hold all the equestrian events in a cooler climate. In Barcelona one year they lost several horses to the heat. Indoors is ok for some of the events, but not for all of them and those are really, really tough on the horses in the heat.
? Some horses were impacted by the heat in the 92 Barcelona Olympics but none died or became seriously ill according to the FEI.
Load More Replies...Sadly, those who use classical music place higher than those who use modern music.
They do actually, though most of the time I think it's classical!
Load More Replies...I've had it in my head all day. Brings back happy thoughts of dance clubs, no husband amd children. Good times! Lol
Load More Replies...Not the Olympics but still cool. First one is my favorite. I don't know to make them a clickable link....sorry about that https://youtu.be/pS37D60i-vo https://youtu.be/knCj92zA0tU
This is great! I've only had to sit through 3 or 4 of these performances and have always thought that it would be SO much better with great music like this! As snobby as these people are they've probably never deinged to listen to music like this. So sad. Lol
Animal sports should be banned. These horses are abandoned or slaughtered as soon as they are useless for this ridiculous show. Reminds me of bull fighting or lion taming. Boo!!
Having ridden for several years, I assure you that's not the case.
Load More Replies...Reminds me of one time I was in a café in Paris next to a guy reading a book on how to learn swimming. I don't understand why these books exist
The runners who are behind him crossing the finish line! In the 200m this Olympics he beat Usain Bolt's speed for that distance. And really the only reason Bolt won the 100m was because he is taller and could lean forward further. Ya, gonna get down voted on that one. But he's our guy! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
After their FIRST tournament together <3 https://twitter.com/PodolakKamila/status/1421816483563384838
They're still considered the 2020 olympics, they were just delayed. It's not like every olympic game was shifted, the next summer olympics are in 3 years now.
Load More Replies...Ah yes Asian last names are so funny because it means something else in the English language.
And you are Chinese using a fake name. Taiwan is an independent country, it rocks you suck ;)
Load More Replies...After their FIRST tournament together <3 https://twitter.com/PodolakKamila/status/1421816483563384838
They're still considered the 2020 olympics, they were just delayed. It's not like every olympic game was shifted, the next summer olympics are in 3 years now.
Load More Replies...Ah yes Asian last names are so funny because it means something else in the English language.
And you are Chinese using a fake name. Taiwan is an independent country, it rocks you suck ;)
Load More Replies...