#olympics

• The massive scale of the event places an unreasonable burden on the host city to build facilities- often single use facilities that are demolished or else decay through underutilization.  
  
• Such overbuilding is hugely inefficient. The same amount of money could represent valuable infrastructure investments if spread around to many metropolises in need of new or improved facilities.
  
• The burden to build too much infrastructure on a 12-year deadline seems to regularly promote corrupt overcharging by builders as well as corrupt bribing of Olympic officials to bring all that wasteful new construction to town- money that is never re-couped by the events themselves.  Some argue that hosting the Olympics improves a host cities reputation but I don't think that claim can be quantified so I'm skeptical.
  
• Spreading new construction money around would allow more efficient use of existing infrastructures and smaller-scale targeted improvement might also substantially reduce Olympic corruption.
  
• Because many different events must be crammed into one metropolis, many sporting events must suffer non-optimal or even totally inappropriate conditions-too warm or too cold, artificial ice, or sand, or grass, or water, etc.  Spreading out the Olympics geographically would allow a better match of sport to geography and allow some cities that could never possibly host the whole gamut of events to shine geographically or specialize in a reputation for one kind of sport.
  
• The Olympiad (4 year cycle) model is based on the ancient Greek calendar which included one leap day per year for a 1461-day base cycle.  That ancient model does not reflect our global sense of seasonality anymore and puts a lot of pressure on athletes.
  
• Many athletes in many different sports hit their peak athleticism for a much shorter window than 4 years and never get a chance to show off their best on the biggest athletic stage by misfortune of birthdate or an injury that occludes their one shot at greatness.
  
• Making many sports annual events would allow many more athletes an opportunity to shine internationally and more accurately reflect the athletic body by eliminating the pressure of happenstance injury or off-peak performances.
  
• It seems a shame that we may never learn the names of the best athletes in a sport because a single fault of timing or circumstance.
  
• Some athletes might have less such peak consideration (team sailing, perhaps or ) and could be free to determine the best time cycle to promote their sport.
  
• Furthermore, many sports only get an international audience at the Olympics and the four-year gap severely discourages continued interest.
  
• Annual events should increase audience interest and allow more narrative to emerge in less-watched sports.
  
• The time pressure to run so many sports simultaneously means that many  smaller events get occluded by more popular events and never get a real shot at increasing interest in their events.  Spreading events out across the year would give smaller events a better chance to be the most interesting sporting event on tv.
  

During the award ceremony in the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru where Berry was awarded the gold medal for the hammer throw, she raised her fist at the end of the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in protest against injustice in America "and a president who's making it worse."   Berry's protests led the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to issue new guidelines in order to allow peaceful expressions of protest "in support of racial and social justice for all human beings." Berry has stated: "I'm here to represent those who died [due] to this systemic racism."

Berry was reprimanded by the International Olympic Committee, who placed her on probation for 12 months, prohibiting her from any form of protest for a year. Her act cost her sponsorships, and she estimated that she lost $50,000.

In June 2021, during the U.S. Olympic track and field trials for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Berry turned away from the U.S. flag during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner".  She said of the national anthem's timing that "I feel like it was a set-up".  According to a spokesperson for USA Track and Field who stated, "The national anthem is played every day according to a previously published schedule", the anthem was scheduled to be played at 5:20 p.m., though on this occasion the music started at 5:25 p.m.  Berry claims an official told her the anthem would play prior to her arrival on the podium.  Berry has accused critics of her protest of favoring "patriotism over basic morality,"  although her activism has been alleged to be performative.