This week there's been much attention paid to Friday's anticipated announcement of the 2016 Olympic host city. Many are actively handicapping the race between Rio, Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo, with a lot of the focus being paid on the parade of stars heading to Copenhagen, which will supposedly influence which city's bid wins. But why evaluate the race based on celebrity quotient, economic impact or environmental factors, when we can simply evaluate the aesthetics of their respective Olympic Stadiums? While a full venue rundown of each city's proposed bids can be found here, this is my take on the crown jewels of each potential Olympic city:
Chicago: Olympic Stadium, to be built by 2016. While I'm not a fan of the asymmetrical roof, the interior looks well-suited to maximize capacity, which will be about 80,000. The stadium itself may end up being overshadowed however, by some of the other grand structures in what is shaping up to be an impressive array of venues across the city, best showcased in this video.
Rio: João Havelange Stadium, built in 2007. The curved arches are a nice touch, and the fact that stadium construction is already complete gives it an advantage in terms of logistics and gameday operations. At 90,000 seats, it would be one of the larger venues in recent memory.
Madrid: Olympic Stadium, built 1994, to be renovated by 2016. The current incarnation underwhelms, but the finished product looks like it will easily meet expectations (seating 70,000), and bonus points if they can actually make the roof translucent.
Tokyo: Olympic Stadium, to be built by 2016. This is by far the most progressive design, with a disk-shaped roof that appears to hover over the massive stadium, which will seat 100,000. Few specs and design drawings are available about the venue, but if we're judging only on looks, Tokyo takes the cake.
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