Olympic Summer Games Villages from Paris 1924 to Rio 2016 22.01.2018
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OSC REFERENCE COLLECTION Olympic Summer Games Villages from Paris 1924 to Rio 2016 22.01.2018 Olympic Summer Games Villages from Paris 1924 to Rio 2016 The Olympic Studies Centre www.olympic.org/studies [email protected] 2 OSC REFERENCE COLLECTION The “OSC Reference collection” is published by The Olympic Studies Centre, your centre of reference for Olympic knowledge. It gathers a series of documents providing key historical facts and figures related to different aspects of the Olympic Games and the IOC. In the same collection: Olympic Summer Games Villages Olympic Winter Games Villages Torches and torch relays of the Olympic Summer Games Torches and torch relays of the Olympic Winter Games History of the sports at the Summer Olympic Games History of sports at the Winter Olympic Games Olympic Summer Games medals Olympic Winter Games medals Youth Olympic Games medals Olympic Winter Games posters Olympic Summer Games posters Olympic Summer Games mascots Olympic Winter Games mascots Youth Olympic Games mascots The sports pictograms of the Olympic Summer Games The sports pictograms of the Olympic Winter Games Elections of the Presidents of the International Olympic Committee : candidates and voting results All reference documents, as well as the full collection of digital and printed publications of The Olympic Studies Centre are available on The Olympic World Library (OWL), our library catalogue entirely devoted to Olympic knowledge: www.olympic.org/library This content (the “Content”) is made available to you (“You”) by the International Olympic Committee (the “IOC”) for non-commercial, educational, research, analysis, review or reporting purposes only. The Content shall not be re- distributed, as made available to you by the IOC, in part or in whole, except to the extent that such content is a derivative work created by You. Re-distribution of compilations of the Content made available to you is expressly excluded. You must give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the IOC and its affiliated entities including The Olympic Studies Centre (“OSC”) endorses you or your use. The IOC by means of the OSC endeavours to provide you with accurate and up-to- date information. The IOC and the OSC make no warranties or representations about and assumes no liability for the information included in the Content, neither its accuracy nor completeness. © 2017 International Olympic Committee The Olympic Studies Centre www.olympic.org/studies [email protected] 3 Olympic Summer Games Villages from Paris 1924 to Rio 2016 CONTENT Introduction 5 Paris 1924 8 Los Angeles 1932 11 Berlin 1936 14 Helsinki 1952 18 Melbourne/Stockholm 1956 22 Rome 1960 26 Tokyo 1964 29 Mexico 1968 33 Munich 1972 36 Montreal 1976 39 Moscow 1980 43 Los Angeles 1984 47 Seoul 1988 51 Barcelona 1992 54 Atlanta 1996 58 Sydney 2000 62 Athens 2004 65 Beijing 2008 69 London 2012 73 Rio 2016 77 Credits 80 The Olympic Studies Centre www.olympic.org/studies [email protected] 4 Olympic Summer Games Villages from Paris 1924 to Rio 2016 INTRODUCTION Today, the Olympic Village is a key element in the organisation and success of the Games. It brings together the world’s athletes in a unique location, and offers them an accommodation solution adapted to their needs during the final phase of their preparation. It is the fruit of an evolution process inseparably linked to that of the Olympic Games. Already in Antiquity, in order to take part in the Olympic Games, the athletes who had come from different cities gathered and lived in the same place. The town of Elis became the venue for this gathering, and at least a month before the Games, the participants arrived here to complete their training and receive instructions for the competitions. They then went to the sanctuary of Olympia around 60 kilometres away, and stayed there during the actual events.1 As mentioned by the historian Nicholas Yalouris, the gathering of athletes from the Ancient Greek world for the Games encouraged the development of a common awareness and shared ideal. Subsequently, the scope of the ancient Olympic Games expanded with the incorporation of Greece into the Roman Empire and the participation of Roman citizens in the Games.2 For the first editions of the modern Olympic Games, between 1896 and 1920, there was no real Olympic Village. The teams generally stayed in hotels, public or military buildings, with local people or even on the boats which had transported them there. The General Technical Rules applicable to the 1924 Games in Paris stipulated that “The Organising Committee for the Olympic Games is required to provide the athletes with accommodation, bedding and food, at a fixed rate which shall be set beforehand per person and per day […].”3 As a result, the organisers established an accommodation centre called the Olympic Village, and offered the teams of the different nations the chance to stay in the same location, under the same conditions, and with common services.4 During the preparations for the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, consideration was given to creating an Olympic Village, but the organisers opted for other solutions.5 For the 1932 Games in Los Angeles, however, an Olympic Village with a capacity of 2,000 people was built to the west of the city. From then on, a Village would be created for every edition of the Summer Games, with the exception of London in 1948, which had to face the material challenges of the immediate post-war period.6 For the Winter Games, 1 Jordi Carbonell, “The Barcelona'92 Olympic Village”, Olympic Villages, Hundred Years of Urban Planning and Shared Experiences, Miquel de Moragas, Montserrat Llinés and Bruce Kidd [ed.], International Symposium on Olympic Villages Lausanne 1996, IOC, 1997, p. 141; Ludwig Drees, Olympia, Gods, Artists and Athletes, London: Pall Mall Press, 1967, p. 43; Nicholas Yalouris, “The City of Elis. The Primordial Olympic Village”, Olympic Villages, Hundred Years of Urban Planning and Shared Experiences, Miquel de Moragas, Montserrat Llinés and Bruce Kidd [ed.], International Symposium on Olympic Villages Lausanne 1996, IOC, 1997, p. 24. 2 Nicholas Yalouris, op. cit., pp. 25-26. 3 Statuts du Comité International Olympique, Règlements et protocole de la célébration des Olympiades modernes et des Jeux Olympiques quadriennaux, Règles générales techniques applicables à la célébration de la VIIIe Olympiade Paris 1924, Lausanne: IOC, ca 1924, p. 21. 4 Les jeux de la VIIIe Olympiade Paris 1924: rapport officiel, Comité olympique français, Paris: Librairie de France, 1924, p. 60. 5 The Ninth Olympiad being the Official Report of the Olympic Games of 1928 celebrated at Amsterdam, G. Van Rossem [ed.], Netherlands Olympic Committee (Committee 1928), Amsterdam: J. H. De Bussy, n.d., pp. 108, 191. 6 The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad, London: The Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad London, 1951, p. 143. The Olympic Studies Centre www.olympic.org/studies [email protected] 5 Olympic Summer Games Villages from Paris 1924 to Rio 2016 between 1924 and 1956 the teams stayed mainly in hotels, apart from the 1952 Games in Oslo, where three accommodation sites were created.7 With each edition, the concept was reinforced and developed. As well as the conviviality element, creating an Olympic Village capable of compactly housing thousands of athletes and their entourage members presents numerous advantages, such as economies of scale or the optimisation of team transport. As the success of the Games has grown, the size of the Villages has increased; the services have become more diverse; and the planning and functions of the different areas of the site have evolved and become standardised. The transformation of the Villages has also reflected that of society. For example, for the Summer Games, until the 1950s no women were housed in the Village, but rather in other accommodation sites. At the 1956 Games in Melbourne, for the first time they had their own part of the main Village, but one to which the male athletes were not admitted. However, the women had access to other parts of the Village such as the dining rooms. This situation continued until the 1980s. Starting with the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, the athletes were accommodated by team, and this gender separation disappeared. Technological developments have also had an impact on the facilities and services of the Olympic Villages with, for example, the appearance of internet access in the 1990s and, at the end of the 20th century, the increasing use of materials and methods of construction aimed at saving energy and resources. The main Olympic Village is one of the imposing architectural projects which characterises an edition of the Games. While the first ones were temporary, as in Paris in 1924 or Los Angeles in 1932, they are now built to last. So re-using them after the Olympic event is of key importance to the host city. The authorities see a chance to develop an innovative project, capable of creating a strong urban legacy of lasting benefit to the local population. And what is more, the Villages built today for the Olympic Games are also used for the Paralympic Games held just afterwards. This document presents the editions of the Olympic Summer Games for which an Olympic Village was created. It does not include the potential plans for the editions which were cancelled or the accommodation used when there was no main Village (before 1924 or London 1948). It does however provide details about any other accommodation sites arranged by the organisers in addition to the main Village. As these sites were not necessarily called “villages”, the terminology used varied from one edition to the next.