Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

[MushCreek]

High on my bucket list is to go to a winter Olympics. I have my sights set on Cortina Italy in 2026. I'm trying to do some fact-finding to see if there's any way we can afford this, and what the logistics are. I've heard that tickets to the Opening Ceremonies are like Super Bowl tickets. I'm sure that they would be beyond our limited resources. I'm hoping that some of the more obscure sports are cheaper? My personal interest are sliding sports, such as bobsled, luge, and skeleton, alpine skiing, and maybe biathlon. How far away will we wind up if we want affordable housing? We prefer AirBnB or the like. What about ground transportation? How the heck do old people like us stay warming standing on the side of a mountain all day? I know, better (and cheaper) to watch on TV, but I'm going to at least look into it.

[Mrleft88]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

Yes. 76 in Montreal. We had friends who lived in Westmount, and just by coincidence one of them was an architect who worked on the Olympic committee. So we had tix to so great stuff, but none of the really big events.
But who cared? I was 15 in Montreal, getting hit on by beautiful women on Ste. Catherine st. (I didn't know they were hookers), Wandering around. stealing badges from passed out cops on park benches, meeting Jackie Stewart, and Pierre Trudeau at the same time, and thinking that Jackie was the bigger star..... but best of all was no one asked for my ID when I ordered Labatt's Blue.

[Rich Jones]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

As a union carpenter I helped build a lot of the facilities for the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Most interesting were the ski jumps. I worked on them in the winter of 1979, freezing my tail off hundreds of feet off the ground on bare steel. Good times.
I moved to Long Island, N.Y. just before the games started so watched them on TV.
I prefer watching sporting events on TV anyway. I'm not much for crowds and, at my age, I need a restroom every hour.

[Jim Bow]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

I can’t handle crowds

[Lugs]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

Yes, the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Great experience.

No accommodation issues, as we lived in Sydney. I moved my boat onto a marina in the Harbour - as the sailing events were a key part of what we wanted to do - as my wife and I had previously raced the Olympic class Tornado cat. Harbour boat traffic was diabolical at times - and the water police were a bit over-officious with the distances they kept us. We bought tickets to other events, eg all soccer games (the finals tickets were super expensive - about $1,500 IIRC. Wife took in wrestling and was it netball - maybe basketball - can't remember now? We used the boat for accommodation near some of the bigger events - like women's soccer final. Some issues - eg when the Clinton kid came to dine at the restaurant on the pier our boat was tied up to, cops were everywhere.

One of the highlights was the closing ceremony - we anchored in Farm Cove. Had the boat full, IIRC 28 on board with 8 - 10 of us staying all night... ferried the rest to shore. The fireworks and fly-over fire dumping F-111 was brilliant.

Highly recommend doing it.

Getting in early for the fireworks. We had prime spot. That night it was wall to wall boats.... with a million people crowding the foreshores

[skuthorp]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

1956
I even had a 'job'
Worked as a messenger at the athletics and track cycling, Kuts won the 1500 meters.
Saw the Russian and Hungarian Sabre competitors fight for real at the fencing.
Met Uffa Fox on a the Warrramunga, a RAN ship at the yachting. He shook hands. He shouted me and 5 other sea scouts ice cream in the mess when he and Prince Phillip came aboard after their racing. I guess there was security, but as a kid I could go anywhere.

Ian, it was a great shame that after all the work you put into Grantulla you couldn't keep her. I well remember the trip up the Hawkesbury and your hospitality.

[Jimmy W]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

I was in the Atlanta area for the 1996 Olympics. I took vacation so I wouldn't have to deal with the traffic and started building my barn/shop. I didn't see any of the events and so many people did like I did that traffic was better than usual during the games.

[robm]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

I was at a French immersion course at Universite Laval in 1976. That was the venue for Olympic European handball. Tickets were under $15, and I was living on campus anyway. It was all a great experience, the Olympics were a good part of it. It will never be like that again, and I don't think I would be able to afford, or would enjoy, the modern experience.

[elf]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

Wanting to be onsite for the Olympics is like wanting to see a big opera. If you can't afford the very best seats, you might as well stay home and watch it on TV.

The difference is that most of what the TV shows is advertising, with a few seconds of the actual sport.

For that reason I've lost all interest in the Olympics.

On the other hand, shooting the Team Racing Worlds from the back of a jetski being driven by someone who was an alternate for one of the teams was an Olympic experience, especailly because he was alternate on the team that won and went to the next two Worlds and won again.

[StevenBauer]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

Lake Placid, 1980. I was in college in Saratoga Springs a couple of hours drive from Lake Placid. My friend Jim’s girlfriend’s dad was a high up executive at CBS who was covering the Olympics. He sent his daughter a huge stack of tickets. There was no way she could go to all the events so they got passed out to her and Jim’s friends and I got some. My sister was in high school in Vermont and she came, too. We got to see Eric Hayden win his fifth gold medal. The whole experience was great but the best part was the medal ceremony at night out on Mirror Lake with music and a laser light show and fireworks.
Jim and his girlfriend had tickets one night to a hockey game - but the girlfriend wanted to see figure skating that night so they found someone to trade with. That hockey game was The Miracle On Ice between Russia and USA. Doh!

[skuthorp]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

Daughter of an old friend started as a volunteer and now is employed by th Movement. Five olympics so far.

[Tom from Rubicon]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

No, but I trained with and for a K4 team. We were Mid-West contenders. And then.
1980 olympic games boycott - Google Search

I could have been a contender. I still have the iron graphics for our T-shirts.

Competing at the National level is a rare place to be. Befriending the thorough breeds was interesting.
I should have breed one and then married her. We were a good team. But myself included Norwegians fixate on superficial beauty. Donna was her name.

[amish rob]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

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I’ve never been, but several of my friends have attended.

[RFNK]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

I was principal of a primary school in Newcastle when the Sydney Olympics were on in 2000. Tickets were very expensive for the Olympics but the Paralympics were held at the same venue some weeks after the regular Olympics. We arranged a deal with the Paralympics and took our whole school, lots of parents and all staff to the Paralympics for the day. We had eleven buses and split all the kids into small groups., all with parent and/or staff escort. Once there, our groups went to all kinds of events as our tickets allowed access to all events. It was such a fantastic day.

[Lugs]

Re: Have any of you attended an Olympics Games?

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I’ve never been, but several of my friends have attended.

Very nice.

I raced my Tornado, once, with a guy who went on to win a couple of world championships and the sailing bronze at the LA games. His skills were phenomenal. He was also the brother in law (or was it cousin?) of a former forumite here