Munich 1972
So, let's travel back to Munich in the early to mid-1960s: we find a city that has just passed the 1 million population mark in 1957, and is looking for mobility solutions. Over the coming decades, for example, a subway and suburban rail network was to be built. In October 1965, an idea came up that would change Munich forever: how about the 1972 Olympics in Munich? It took a few weeks for an organizing committee led by German National Olympic Committee President Willi Daume to draw up the plans and submit them to the IOC. Months later, Munich was awarded the contract and construction work began. Not only on the Oberwiesenfeld in the north of the city, where the Olympic Park was created - still a vibrant vein of Munich's cultural life today - but also in the city center, where the Altstadtring was built, among other things, and where there was extensive renovation, demolition and new construction everywhere. Some Munich residents feared for their city at the sight of this upheaval, but the planners managed the balancing act between preserving the essence of Munich and the necessary departure into the modern age - within six years, the underground and suburban railroad were added and the venerable residential city on the Isar became the cosmopolitan city with a heart that Munich enjoys a worldwide reputation for today.
When it came to organizing the Games, the motto for all those involved at the time was: never again "Berlin 1936" - the Olympics that wrote a dark chapter in sporting history as the Hitler Games. The Ulm-based designer Otl Aicher (whose wife Inge was a sister of Sophie and Hans Scholl), who gave the games a colorful and cheerful look, succeeded in doing just that. Incidentally, an electric vehicle from BMW accompanied the marathon at the time.
All of this will be remembered, as will, unfortunately, the attack by Palestinian terrorists on September 3rd 1972, which claimed the lives of eleven Israeli athletes and a policeman. Apart from the memories, however, infrastructural and socio-cultural innovations remain: the underground, the S-Bahn, the pedestrian zone and the central ring road, which worked so well precisely because they did not change the core of Munich's character, but gave it a contemporary form. In the years after 1972, what was created as the Olympic village for athletes became a kind of "city within the city" with schools, kindergartens, medical care, cultural facilities and more, which now offers living space for over 6,000 people on 40 hectares. The modern vision of the "city of short distances" was already a reality in Munich's Olympic Village in the 1970s.
Barcelona 1992
The 20 years between 1972 and 1992 were not only eventful in terms of sport, but also socio-politically. The Cold War was reflected on the Olympic stage in the form of numerous boycotts. Finally, however, the iron curtain came down and Barcelona emerged as an Olympic highlight. Hardly anyone suspected the potential that lay dormant in the Catalan city. But Jordi Borja knew it. From 1983 to 1995, he was Barcelona's second mayor and in charge of urban planning. He and his fellow campaigners began planning a new Barcelona while still in exile and in opposition during the Franco dictatorship. It was clear to them that their Barcelona would one day open up to the sea, the working-class district of Poble Nou presenting itself as a kind of Brooklyn of Catalonia and the beach of La Barceloneta attracting hordes of tourists every year, today.
So when Barcelona won the bid 1986 for the 1992 Games, Borja and his colleagues already had a plan. Journalist Florian Haupt, who lives in Barcelona, wrote on the subject in the TAZ newspaper in 2015: "When the Olympic bid was awarded, the plan had long been ready in the drawer. Barcelona used the Games for its own purposes instead of building for the purposes of the Olympics." According to Haupt, it needed a "front to the sea, a highway ring, a larger airport, a renewal of the run-down old town, more quality of life in the periphery." And, when the Olympic flame reached Catalonia, everything was ready and the stage was set for the athletes: The US basketball "dream team" of Michael Jordan and Earvin "Magic" Johnson were particularly memorable, so superior to their opponents on the court that some of the NBA stars are said to have almost seen more of Barcelona's nightlife than the training courts. Barcelona's local mountain, Montjuïc, saw mainly Chinese victories as the venue for the diving competitions, but what viewers saw on the TV broadcasts was a magnificent view of the Mediterranean pearl that Barcelona had now become - including Antoni Gaudí's great unfinished work, the Sagrada Familia basilica.
Paris 2024
Paris is also known for its famous churches. However, there are no plans for major new construction in the French capital ahead of the 2024 Olympics, at least as far as sporting facilities are concerned. This is because 95 percent of this summer's games are to be held in existing or temporary sports venues. Paris is planning to be the greenest Summer Olympics in modern times, and has set itself the goal of halving its CO2 emissions compared to the average of previous Olympics - to 1.75 million tons. How is this to be achieved at an event that is expected to attract around 15,000 athletes, 45,000 volunteers and 26,000 media representatives as well as around 15 million spectators over four weeks of Olympic and Paralympic competitions? In addition to largely avoiding newly built sports facilities, Paris, like Barcelona and Munich, is not using the Games as an image booster, but as a catalyst for urban development. For example, not only will the Seine be cleaned up as the venue for the opening ceremony and the long-distance swimming competitions, and made available for public use after the Olympics, but 1,000 additional kilometers of cycle paths (plus 3,000 additional "pay-as-you-go" bikes) will also become available. Another commitment: 80% of the ingredients for the approximately 13 million meals served to athletes, volunteers, media and fans are to come from France - reducing food miles while showcasing the best of French cuisine.
The fact that the organizing team of these Olympic Games is serious about a future-oriented vision of Paris is also shown by the fact that the center of the Games is not located in the picturesque actual center of Paris, but on the other side of Boulevard Périphérique, in the suburb of Saint-Denis. Not only has the famous Stade de France already stood there since the 1998 World Cup, but the only new building of a sporting nature for these Games, the swimming arena (covered by France's largest solar roof), is also being built here, as well as the Olympic Village, a new urban district covering fifty hectares on the border of Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen and L'Île Saint-Denis. After the Games, 6,000 people find a home here in 2,800 apartments, with flora and fauna on specially designed roofs, plus almost 9,000 new trees. The plan is to create a small city of short distances - including work and shopping facilities - in the megacity of Paris. Entirely in line with the concept of Sorbonne professor Carlos Moreno, whose "15-minute city" model has been causing a stir in urban planning since 2016 (and has also found a supporter in Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo). The postcard Paris within the Boulevard Périphérique is already an almost perfect "15-minute city", but now it is to be hoped that the bridge to the banlieues, the "Grand Paris", will also succeed. An endeavor that will also take on a sporting form this summer with the inclusion of breakdancing in the Olympic canon. The creative centers of this discipline in France are located in the banlieues. The competitions, however, take place in the middle of Paris' fashionable old town, on the Place de la Concorde.
This time, Paris is planning an urban planning revolution. And it seems as if the Olympic Games will succeed in taking several major steps towards the future. In contrast to Munich or Barcelona, which were not yet world cities at the time of their great Olympic moments, Paris is already one of the most important metropolises in the world. This is not about asserting itself as a world city, but about setting an example for the future: how do sustainability, inclusion and quality of life work? How does a bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly "city of short distances" work on a multi-million scale? What connects the 2024 Olympics in Paris with Munich 1972 and Barcelona 1992: the urban planners in Paris, like Willi Daume and Otl Aicher in Munich, like Jordi Borja in Barcelona, seem to be concerned with real, sustainable improvements. They obviously mean well for their cities.
Read more about the Olympics in Paris this summer here on MOTION Magazine, we'll keep you posted on what happens in the French capital.
Photo of Aquatic Centre Courtesy of Paris 2024.
