… given the way that the US is treating visitors from other countries …
… the 2026 FIFA World Cup planned to be hosted by Mexico, USA, Canada will be changed to delete or limit games in the US?
… the 2028 Summer Olympics planned to be hosted by the Los Angeles and other venues will be moved to another country?
… if these games happen in the US, some of the best athletes will not participate by choice or by force?
the 2026 FIFA World Cup planned to be hosted by Mexico, USA, Canada will be changed to delete or limit games in the US?
A real possibility. Might be worth a small bet but I am not knowledgeable of their internal rules. It’s kinda short notice. Might not be possible
… the 2028 Summer Olympics planned to be hosted by the Los Angeles and other venues will be moved to another country?
I think this is also too short notice to do anything about. Contracts have been signed. Expectations are in motion. Statements and advisories about “dangers” and “possibilities” are probably the best they can do at this point. An Olympic site requires a lot of lead time
… if these games happen in the US, some of the best athletes will not participate by choice or by force?
This is a real possibility. Some will take the opportunity to “make a statement”, protest, whatever, but sports is an ego business. HUGE egos. You can’t think you’re “the best in the whole world” without a big ego. What these people want is to show off and “not politicize the Olympics.” The countries involved are like that too (We’re #1!!! – don’t politicize the Olympics) but I think they are slightly more likely to pull out over safety concerns than the athletes. And their athletes will complain about politicizing the Olympics and “being denied”.
The Olympics are a tough sell today. Few cities want to sponsor the games because it’s a money loser.
My bet would be that the Los Angeles games are held as planned.
intercst
Dear PF
The had the Olympics in hitlers germany.
Could be worse.
I have been thinking that the US might come up with a list of foreign athletes to target. Either forbid entry on equivocal or totally made-up grounds, or attempt to intimidate them or their country into staying away. This might be done in some sports to boost US performance or it might be done just to be jerks about it.
It could be a 1936 redux. I hope not.
Officially and usually in reality it is a CITY and not a nation that hosts the Olympics, and Blue California and solidly Blue Los Angeles have built strong alliances to get the games and, as the only city to have made a profit both previous times that it hosted, Los Angeles is the model for the future of the Olympics.
I expect anti-Trumpsters worldwide with any whiff of sense will know that the Los Angeles Olympics is “good ground” for political struggle against idiocy.
Olympics will go on as planned. LA was awarded 2028 primarily because no other city was interested. Ditto Paris in 2024.
As far as athletes not participating by choice or force, has been happening ever since the Olympics were restarted in 1896 and if truth were known even in Ancient Greece. Its human nature.
I lost interest in the olympics when the winner of the qualification races was not sent to Japan on the charge that he was not Venezuelan born. The guy who replaced him came in last in the Japan Star Class races.
The Captain
As I posted over on Shrewdm.com, I find this extremely unlikely. These athletes train for years to get into this one event, and if they win are guaranteed a modicum of fame, product endorsements, engagements on the lecture circuit, and so on. To not compete gives them a chance to make a statement for a single news cycle, which these days is less than 24 hours.
Better to compete, win, then make the statement. I still remember the black athletes on the winners platforms with their fists raised in the air. I have no memory of any of the others, do you? I certainly don’t remember anyone who voluntarily didn’t compete.
Dear Goofy,
When does Trump cut the Olympic budget for our athletes? Then we will see China pick up the most medals in LA.
That is sports. They may destroy the university and secondary school academic departments, but they know they need to keep sports.
Steve
Only the profitable ones, the ones that generate alumni and donor dollars, will keep getting funding. X-country, track and field, volleyball, wrestling, and all the other minor sports will be defunded. Women’s sports will be the first to go since it is the Dept. of Ed. that enforced Title IX. [The tense shift in that last sentence was intentional.]