In the centre of Munich the locals were gearing up for the announcement of the host city for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Munich was on the shortlist against Pyeongchang South Korea and Annecy, and looked confident of getting the nod. They had, after all, hosted a summer Olympics once upon a time. Yes, things had gone a bit wrong (which is a tactful understatement) the last time, but that was a long time ago now. It never occurred to me at the time but now I wonder whether the city was so enthusiastic to get another Olympics so they could put the past behind them, or whether they just wanted to win and have a good time. In fact, I wonder if Munich's attitude to the disaster of the Olympic siege of 1972 is like Sheffield's attitude to Hillsborough - something momentous in history but something that perhaps doesn't trouble the residents of the city as much as it does the protagonists who were involved.
The Olympic announcement involved a large stage and live music in front of the city hall, much as it had been in Turin. We walked past the preliminary preparations, but were more interested in the sights. The sights in central Munich are mostly churches. The main one is called the Frauenkirche and is a large building with an enormous red roof and two towers with onion-shaped pinnacles. Nearby is a smaller church with one tower called St Peters (Peterskirche). Up the road a short distance is the Theatine Church (Theatinerkirche) which is large, imposing and orange. We also passed the Palace - the 'Residenz' - home of Bavarian monarchs, the Opera, and a large monument to Bavarian armies of the early 19th century called Feldherrnhalle (Field Marshall's Hall), really just a platform with three arches holding up a roof but built on a heroic scale.
The remarkable thing about Munich's Olympic park is how well it all fits together visually and functionally. The three big buildings, the stadium, the swimming pool, and arena, all have the same triangulated canopies covering them like metal and glass cobwebs. It's an ingenious idea that disguises the functional shapes of the buildings underneath and gives everything a nice theme. Looking down at the whole thing from the top the viewing hillock was pretty much perfect. Only the green seats of the stadium didn't quite work with the surroundings. We had a wander around and peered into the swimming pool and the arena. I suppose in the popular history these would best be called the 'Mark Spitz Pool' and 'Olga Korbut Arena' after the two most remembered participants in each building. The buildings were well-kept but didn't look to have changed much since 1972, perhaps, as a testament to the architect, because they didn't need to. The stadium was not a building with walls but had grass slopes and trees around its edges. On one of the flanks was the 'Wall of fame' commemorating all the gold-medalists from the Olympic games. The names near the grass-level had been scratched slightly, presumably by lawnmowers. We didn't walk over to the memorial to the Israeli team members who died in the hostage crisis, it was on the other side of the stadium on the bridge over the ring-road to the Olympic village.
Munich didn't get the 2018 Winter Olympics, they went to Pyeongchang in South Korea. Perhaps they shouldn't have been surprised; with the World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea, the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the 2015 World Athletics also in Beijing, the Far East has become fashionable for major sporting events. Perhaps Munich could take it as a compliment; they don't really need Athletics championships to make people aware of their existence. The party that had been set up the day before was half-heartedly continuing with some anonymous DJ spinning some anonymous records and a few people in the crowd saluting with beer bottles. Clearly the lesson the Munich Olympic Committee could learn is to book some big-name rock 'n' roll band so the crowd will forget the disappointment of not winning the Winter Olympics.
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