The Olympics

New York City did not win the race to host the 2012 Olympics. The only surprising aspect of this is that anyone could have been surprised.

Earlier this year, I spent some time in Paris and London, and was overwhelmed by the intense focus on the Olympic candidacy that was on display in both of those cities- particularly Paris. Those people wanted the Olympics in their city.

New York's attitude toward the bid seemed a lot less genuine and had no perceptible trace of grassroots support- some decals on the subways and a whole lot of political BS surrounding stadium building was all we saw.

The International Olympic Committee claimed that New York had the lowest level of popular support for the Olympics out of all of the candidate cities. This comes as no shock. I bet a large percentage of the New Yorkers crammed onto its crowded summer subways haven't even heard of the Olympics- much less passionately dream of hosting it.

I love New York, and I love the Olympics. I would have loved to see the two intersect in 2012. But did we really earn it? No way.

The real surprise was London's coup- I would have bet everything on Paris. As upset as certain New Yorkers may be today, we really have little claim to disappointment compared to the Parisians.