Olympic Village

An Olympic Village is an accommodation center built for the Olympic Games, usually within an Olympic Park or elsewhere in a host city. Olympic Villages are built to house all participating athletes, as well as officials and athletic trainers. After the Munich Massacre at the 1972 Olympics, the Villages have been made extremely secure. Only athletes, trainers and officials are allowed to room at the Village, though family members and former Olympic athletes are allowed inside with proper checks. Press and media are also barred.

History

The idea of the Olympic Village comes from Pierre de Coubertin. Up until the 1924 Summer Olympic Games, National Olympic Committees rented locations around the host city to house participants, which was expensive. For the 1924 Summer Olympics, the organizers built cabins near the Stade Olympique de Colombes to allow the athletes to easily access the Games' venues. The Olympic Village of the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles served as the model of today's Olympic Villages; it consisted of a group of buildings with rooms to lodge athletes, and buildings with other accommodations.

List of Olympic Villages
  • Athens 1906: The Zappeion, which was used during Athens 1896 as the main Fencing Hall, was used in 1906 as a (not purpose-built) Olympic Village.[1]
  • Paris 1924: In Paris in 1924, a number of cabins were built near the stadium to house visiting athletes; the complex was called "Olympic Village".[2]
  • Los Angeles 1932: The first Olympic Village is constructed in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. For male athletes only, the Village consisted of several hundred buildings, including post and telegraph offices, an amphitheater, a hospital, a fire department, and a bank. Female athletes were housed at the Chapman Park Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard.[3] The village was dismantled after the games.
Berlin Olympic village of 1936
  • Berlin 1936: About 145 one- and two-story apartment buildings, Haus der Nationen refectory, Hindenburghaus theater, a hospital, an indoor arena, a swimming pool and a sauna in Wustermark about 6 mi west of Berlin. Used as barracks for over 50 years, the buildings are partially ruined. A men's residence has been restored under the name "Jesse Owens house".
  • Helsinki 1952: The first Olympic Village, Olympiakylä, was constructed in the Käpylä district of Helsinki for the planned 1940 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to World War II. Another Olympic Village, Kisakylä, was built nearby for the 1952 Olympics. Kisakylä couldn't accommodate all athletes so other villages were also designated for instance in Otaniemi and the Santahamina military base. Both Olympiakylä and Kisakylä areas are listed by Docomomo as significant examples of modern architecture in Finland.[4][5]
Helsinki Olympic Village of 1952.
  • Melbourne 1956: The area in Heidelberg West, Victoria, where the athletes stayed is still called "Olympic Village". After the games, athlete residences were used for public housing. The area now consists of a sports center, a primary school, shopping strip, a community health centre which also houses a registered training organization and a legal service.
  • Rome 1960: consist of 33 buildings with two, three, four and even five floors.
  • Squaw Valley 1960: Four identical three-story apartment buildings, two of which still stand, modified into condominiums.
  • Mexico City 1968: 904 apartments distributed in 29 multi-story buildings in the Miguel Hidalgo Olympic Village Complex.
  • Munich 1972: Multiple buildings of 25, 22, 20, 19, 16, 15, and 12 stories, used now as Olympic Village student housing.
Montreal Olympic Village of 1976.
  • Montreal 1976: Olympic Village (Montreal), Two 23-story pyramid-shaped buildings. Now apartment buildings.
  • Lake Placid 1980
  • Moscow 1980: Eighteen 16-story buildings.
  • Sarajevo 1984: Apartment buildings now used as condominiums and tourist facilities.
  • Los Angeles 1984: The UCLA residents' facilities, CSULA, USC, and UCSB.
  • Calgary 1988: Presently student accommodations on the campus of the University of Calgary. The athlete's village consisted of the existing Kananaskis, Rundle, Castle, Norquay and Brewster buildings, as well as the newly constructed Glacier and Olympus buildings.
  • Seoul 1988: Twenty-one multiple-story buildings.
  • Albertville 1992: Brides-les-Bains
  • Barcelona 1992: A new neighbourhood, La Vila Olímpica, was built on reclaimed sea front in Poblenou; it became residential after the Games. Secondary villages were built in Banyoles and La Seu d'Urgell for rowing and white water canoeing athletes respectively.[6]
  • Plaque recognizing Georgia Tech as the site of the 1996 Olympic Village
    Lillehammer 1994: The village was built on a west-facing slope just to the north of Lillehammer, and took its form from the old farms of Gudbrandsdal.
  • Atlanta 1996: Housing was built on the campus of Georgia Institute of Technology, Clark Atlanta University, and Georgia State University. The Olympic village at Georgia State was later bought by Georgia Tech for students' housing. The village on the campus of Clark Atlanta, later became housing for students at CAU.
  • Nagano 1998: The village is located 7 kilometers southwest of Nagano Station. The total land space is 19 hectares. There are 1032 apartments in 22 buildings, and is capable of accommodating 3,000 people. Another Village was in Karuizawa, the site for the newly entered Olympic sport of curling. Karuizawa is about 70 kilometers southeast of Nagano City. 120 people from 9 countries stayed at the Karuizawa Skate Center Hotel during the Winter Games.
  • Sydney 2000: A new suburb, Newington, which became residential following the Games.
Salt Lake Olympic Village of 2002, now used as student housing.
London Olympic Village of 2012, now part of East Village
Rio de Janeiro Olympic Village of 2016.
gollark: `math.randomseed` works as usual in potatOS, *but* before any user code executes potatOS generates a random number and seeds the generator with that if the uninstall challenge is started.
gollark: Yep!
gollark: * insanity
gollark: Galaxtone, you really shouldn't have incited this instanity.
gollark: I have NO earphones!

References
  1. "The Zappeion Exhibition Hall over time". The Zappeion Megaron Hall of Athens. Archived from the original on 2008-09-21. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  2. "Olympic Village (village, Olympic Games) - Encyclopædia Britannica". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  3. 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Athlete's Village in the Baldwin Hills, Accessed November 12, 2007.
  4. "Olympiakylä – Olympic village". Docomomo Suomi Finland ry. Archived from the original on March 9, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  5. "Kisakylä – Olympic 1952 Village". Docomomo Suomi Finland ry. Archived from the original on March 9, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  6. "Barcelona 1992 Official Report" (PDF).
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.