This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

…I wish there would be a move to hold the Olympics in the same place every time it occurs.

So, here I go again.  Writing about something about which I don’t know much.  That’s my style.  But it does not divert me from offering an opinion, however personal it may be.

I write today about the Olympics just as we have seen the most recent version end after being very difficult to run, given Covid.

My sense is that finding a singular location for the games – actually two if you count both the summer and winter events — would save loads of money, as well link the Olympics to its history in Greece, at least for the summer version.

Here is the way the Wall Street Journal wrote about the issue in an in-my-opinion piece that appeared under this headline:

Move the Olympics to Athens—Forever

Why not eliminate the selection process that feeds nationalism?

A retired U.S. Navy admiral, James Stavridis, started his opinion piece this way:

“I’m a proud Greek-American, and the Olympics have a special place in my heart.  Every couple of years, the world is treated to a spectacular display of athletic ability in summer and winter formats at a carefully selected national venue.

“The athletes embody a fine quality of ‘olympism,’ as they strive to live up to the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect.  The Olympic website is full of messages about how the games bring nations together in fair and open athletic competition.

“But the games have all too often become overt displays of odious propaganda (the 1936 games were put on by the Nazi regime in Berlin) or the setting for fierce geopolitical arguments, such as when the U.S. and other Western nations boycotted the 1980 games after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.”

The next Olympics, the winter version in Beijing in 2022 stands to be another version of politics over athletics, especially as the regressive regime in China silences dissent in a bid to move forward no matter the cost.

It is true that nations often fight hard to host the games, believing that, beyond the games themselves, there is a supposed financial benefit.  Still, those benefits seldom seem to materialize, at least in the predicted proportions.

“Moving the games,” Stavridis adds, “is also an opportunity to show soft power to allies, partners, friends and send a message to opponents.  Winning the venue often feeds virulent nationalism that runs counter to Olympic ideals.  The frequent corruption associated with the selection process doesn’t help.”

A solution, according to Stavridis, “would be to construct a pair of Olympic facilities, one for summer and the other for winter, which could be used every two years permanently.  The expense for the construction and subsequent maintenance of the global facility could be shared among participating nations as a percentage of their economy with respect to global gross domestic product.”

But where to put such global Olympic homes?  

For the winter, it would be possible to consider St. Moritz, Switzerland, which has hosted the Olympics twice, in 1928 and 1948, and is a recognized center of international skiing.  The Swiss are organized and efficient.  Switzerland is known for its political neutrality and has a reputation as a reliable, sensible international actor.

The obvious selection for summer could be Greece.  After all, the Greeks invented the games.  Like the Swiss, the Greeks have twice hosted the games, in the summers of 1896 and 2004.  Greece is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and a close friend of the U.S., but the Greeks also have relatively good relationships with Russia and China.

Stavridis concludes:  “There are many other potential venues, and all of this would require significant negotiation.  But it would be worth it to end the expensive and controversial selection process.  Above all, a fixed location would eliminate some of the nationalism and propaganda that detract from the true purpose of the games.”

Points worth considering, I think.  And I say this only as a fan of many Olympic events.  Let’s make the event about the athletics, not politics and propaganda.