有关蒙特利尔举办的奥运会的英文简介

有关蒙特利尔举办的奥运会的英文简介
有关蒙特利尔举办的奥运会的英文简介

有关蒙特利尔举办的奥运会的英文简介
The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, were held in 1976 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. These are the summer Olympic Games organized by the International Olympic Committee. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games in May of 1970 over the bid of Moscow and Los Angeles, who later hosted the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games respectively.
Montreal — Host City
Selection
Other candidate cities in the bid to host the 1976 summer Olympic Games were Moscow and Los Angeles. The final choice was made on May 12, 1970 during the 69th IOC session in Amsterdam. Los Angeles was eliminated in the first round of voting. In the second round, Montreal defeated Moscow, 41 votes to 28 (with one blank vote). The two cities hosted the very next two summer games: Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984.
The Olympics in Canada
1976 was the first time Canada hosted the Olympics, and it did so in what was, at the time, its largest city. Canada has subsequently hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, the largest city in the province of Alberta, and was selected to host the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the largest city in the province of British Columbia, and it will become the largest city ever to host a Winter Olympics. Coincidentally, Toronto hosted the 1976 Summer Paralympics.
The Olympics in Montreal
Montreal saw the 1976 games as a chance to build on the prestige that it had gained during the 1967 World's Fair, known as Expo 67, held in Canada's centennial year.
Montreal massively overspent on the Olympics, following Mayor Jean Drapeau's adage, The Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby (a statement mocked in a political cartoon depicting him on the telephone asking for a "Morgentaler"). However, with rampant corruption, and lack of financial controls, Montreal did indeed lose money, over US$2 billion, when it was all said and done. In fact, the Quebec government — afraid the province would be humiliated internationally — stepped in at the eleventh hour and essentially put the entire municipal Olympic organizing effort under trusteeship. The facilities would likely not have been ready in time for the games had this not happened, a reality trumpeted by the provincial government in a series of "Because of Quebec, we've done it all!" TV commercials. The Olympic Stadium is still known colloquially as the Big Owe (a play on the stadium nickname, the Big O, for Olympic Stadium). In December 2006, Montreal finished paying its Olympic debt. For the 1976 Olympics, Montreal expanded the Montreal Metro rapid mass transit system first built for Expo 67.
The Olympics after Montreal
Following the news of the massive financial losses of the Montreal Games, few cities wished to host the Olympics. This was seen as a major threat to the future of the Olympic Games, and was not until the financially successful 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles that cities began to line up to be hosts again. The Los Angeles and Montreal Games are seen as examples of what to do and not to do when organizing the Olympics, and serve as object lessons to prospective host cities. Since then, additional object lessons have been drawn from Atlanta in 1996 (the need to avoid commercialization) and Athens in 2004 (the need to organize and build to schedule).
The capital of the host province of the Olympics, Quebec City, was a candidate city of the 2002 Winter Olympics. It lost to Salt Lake City. The cost overruns in Montreal's 1976 games were a factor in Quebec City's loss.