What’s the first Olympics you remember watching?

[MisterSG1]

Although I owned (and still) own the Barcelona 1992 video game for Genesis, I can't recall watching anything from those games.

The first I remember watching is Lillehammer 94, seeing Elvis Stojko skate.

As for the first Summer Games, I remember seeing Donovan Bailey win the gold in the 100m at Atlanta in 1996 and the political sour grapes that followed (that's a story for another day however, Olympic nationalism causes people to act irrationally)

[davewiecking]

Tommie Smith and John Carlos; Mexico City 1968.

[Max Rockatansky]

1992 because of the Dream Team.  The Olympics rarely have been worth a watch ever since.

[7/8]

I think I vaguely remember the 2004 Athens olympics, but I remember the 2006 Torino olympics more (I've always preferred the winter olympics ). The 2010 olympics we're of course special as a Canadian, and I was also on a great ski trip at Fernie, BC (that was still the best skiing I've ever experienced)!

Next week I'll be skiing in Tremblant; 8 years gone by and I'll be watching the olympics on a ski trip once again.

[ftballfan]

First one I remember was 2000 Sydney

[Big John]

1976 Montreal - with the then-Bruce Jenner.

[kurumi]

1984, ice hockey. I played when I was a kid, and it was the first olympics after the Miracle on Ice.

I settled down to enjoy a good hockey game, which the American network showed about 7 minutes of before switching to some vignette about the challenges overcome by an upcoming American figure skater. That doesn't seem surprising now, but it was a bit of a disappointment then.

[MisterSG1]

I think I vaguely remember the 2004 Athens olympics, but I remember the 2006 Torino olympics more (I've always preferred the winter olympics ). The 2010 olympics we're of course special as a Canadian, and I was also on a great ski trip at Fernie, BC (that was still the best skiing I've ever experienced)!

Next week I'll be skiing in Tremblant; 8 years gone by and I'll be watching the olympics on a ski trip once again.

I'm guess I must be in the minority here in Canada when I say I prefer the Summer Games. It's the bigger more complicated event. It's the style of competition I like more, other than short track and snowboard/ski cross, there are no events where athletes are pitted against each other in races. It's just a preference.

Speaking of which, I was bitter when Vancouver won the Olympic bid as it took away our chance at a summer Olympics for at least a decade. Furthermore, the Olympics since then, with Vancouver being an exception have been a curse on the city who hosts them. The Athens olympics is the most serious example in recent times. The attitude in Toronto when we lost that bid in 2001 was that we'd get it right the next time for 2012 (which may have been a long shot considering the major cities of the world all bid for 2012) As I said, the Olympics were something the people wanted, Toronto entertained in 2015 the possibility of bidding for 2024 and that met understandable opposition. But I really wonder what Toronto would have been like today infrastructure wise if we hosted the 2008 Olympics or 2012 Olympics.


Did you ever wonder what those grey posts on some GTA overpasses are for? (GSV SB 410 @ Steeles to see an example) Well back for the 2008 bid, these held a banner which read something like ([Corporate Logo] supports Toronto's Olympic Bid"  On a side note, I do remember some GTA overpasses utilizing these posts in 2015 advertising about the Pan American Games. The Olympic banners appeared on the overpasses from roughly Summer 2000 to when they lost the bid the following summer in 2001.

[Buck87]

I have a memory of being at a large family gathering at my grandma's and knowing that the TV was on and that it was the Olympics and that it was in Atlanta, but I can't remember anything about which sport was on at the time.

The earliest one where I can remember exactly what I was watching is 1998 Nagano, specifically the opening ceremony. 

[SignGeek101]

Athens 2004 for me. Memory is pretty hazy though.

[US71]

Hazy memory of 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich

[Alps]

Vague memories of the two 1992 competitions, definitely fully aware of the decision to split years and the next one in 1994.

[US 89]

Furthermore, the Olympics since then, with Vancouver being an exception have been a curse on the city who hosts them.

The 2002 Olympics were awesome for Salt Lake City. Increased tourism, much improved infrastructure (including a complete reconstruction of I-15 through SL County), venues still in use, a light rail system...I could go on.

Did you ever wonder what those grey posts on some GTA overpasses are for? (GSV SB 410 @ Steeles to see an example) Well back for the 2008 bid, these held a banner which read something like ([Corporate Logo] supports Toronto's Olympic Bid"  On a side note, I do remember some GTA overpasses utilizing these posts in 2015 advertising about the Pan American Games. The Olympic banners appeared on the overpasses from roughly Summer 2000 to when they lost the bid the following summer in 2001.

There are several bridges with Olympic stuff on them in the Salt Lake City area. Three come to mind now, and I'm sure there are more:
Bangerter Highway at I-15
South Weber Drive at US 89
I-80 and SR-224 (this interchange was actually upgraded to a SPUI to prepare for the Olympics).

[english si]

Barcelona. Though that's mostly the TV coverage's theme song.

Oldest specific Olympic-watching memory is bobsleigh at Nagano.

In the flesh, London 2012.

I was bitter when Vancouver won the Olympic bid as it took away our chance at a summer Olympics for at least a decade.

A Candian city could have bid for 2024 and didn't. The next three Olympics are all pretty close together - South Korea, Japan and China (Beijing having a second games just 12 years after the first - won by being the only people bidding!). Toronto didn't bid for 2024 or 2028, and so will have to wait for 2036 (due to LA 2028 and a dislike of 2 games in a row on one continent) unless no one bids for 2032 and they can pull a Beijing!

I know it's not quite the same, but hosting the Commonwealth Games would be a good step on the way to making any Toronto 2036 Olympic bid unstoppable - stop letting Hamilton (which held the first games in 1930) from launching bids doomed to failure (though perhaps the lessons from not giving Hamilton it in 2010 have been learned?), get experience of bidding, build a lot of the infrastructure (but a smaller scale - fewer athletes, fewer events) splitting the cost and spreading it out over two events, get experience of running such things. Become a safe bet with a successful Commonwealth Games in the 2020s and (unlike smaller UK cities which kept being told by the IOC that they were only interested in UK bids from London, despite the fact they would have been great Olympic hosts) make it hard for the IOC to not pick you.

Furthermore, the Olympics since then, with Vancouver being an exception have been a curse on the city who hosts them.

London? Yes, there have been issues (the massive public subsidy of West Ham, for instance - though that's nothing compared to US stadium shenanigans and is only really an issue as in the UK, teams build stadia with very few exceptions), but the legacy has been overwhelmingly positive and Londoners (Brits in general less so, mostly due to the grudge against London getting all the attention) are glad the 5-ring circus came to town. Stratford is still getting more and more a major centre post-2012 - the Olympics functioned as a catalyst and the snowball effect keeps growing. The city has restored its civic pride, and the Olympics, coupled with the Diamond Jubilee the same year did create a change in the national mood about throwing more parties. Add in that the tube network is now better signed for tourists.

I think Athens, Atlanta and Rio are the only ones in the past few years where they have been problems specifically due to holding the games. Sochi and Beijing's problems with the games were almost all to do with the government being an authoritarian regime.

There are several bridges with Olympic stuff on them in the Salt Lake City area.

That's the games-specific logo? The IOC police the copyright of the 5 rings very seriously and hosts only get to display one set post-games. London recycled the metal of some (eg Tower Bridge), reused others (eg St Pancras cut its set up and made them coloured curved benches) . The Lisa-Simpson-doing-a-lewd-act-on-Bart 2012 logo is nowhere to be seen in London anymore.

[Hurricane Rex]

Beijing 2008 for me.

[Jardine]

1964 Tokyo

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Sydney 2000.

[US 81]

Montreal 1976 here, too.

Besides admiring Jenner's gold medal and world record, my surprise and confusion when Nadia Comaneci's score showed as "1.00." I knew nothing about gymnastics - still don't know much - but she had obviously done her skills very well.

[ET21]

Athens 2004

[Jim]

Even though I was only age 9, I remember being in the streets of Lake Placid when Team USA beat the Soviets in the hockey semifinals and the party that spilled into the street from there.  I'm 99% sure we were also in the building for the bronze medal game and the medal ceremony.  I also remember watching the closing ceremony on television back home after all that.

It's too bad the Olympics have outgrown places like Lake Placid.  It's such a great winter sports area.

[MisterSG1]

Even though I was only age 9, I remember being in the streets of Lake Placid when Team USA beat the Soviets in the hockey semifinals and the party that spilled into the street from there.  I'm 99% sure we were also in the building for the bronze medal game and the medal ceremony.  I also remember watching the closing ceremony on television back home after all that.

It's too bad the Olympics have outgrown places like Lake Placid.  It's such a great winter sports area.

There's just one thing that's incorrect. The famous USA vs USSR game was NOT a semifinal. The remaining four teams played a round robin with the remaining teams they hadn't played. (USA tied Sweden so 1 point was carried over but had not played USSR or Finland)

In fact, if the US had NOT defeated Finland two days later, USSR would have got the gold despite the upset two days earlier.

[michravera]

Although I owned (and still) own the Barcelona 1992 video game for Genesis, I can't recall watching anything from those games.

The first I remember watching is Lillehammer 94, seeing Elvis Stojko skate.

As for the first Summer Games, I remember seeing Donovan Bailey win the gold in the 100m at Atlanta in 1996 and the political sour grapes that followed (that's a story for another day however, Olympic nationalism causes people to act irrationally)

Grenoble 1968. I also remember Vinko Bogataj's attempted jump in one of the qualifying events earlier that year.

[Jmiles32]

Beijing 2008 for me.

Same here.

[02 Park Ave]

The Helsinki Olympics.  They weren't shown live but they did have highlights everyday.

[1995hoo]

Sarajevo 1984. Like kurumi, I remember how ABC would cut away from hockey. People complained and Jim McKay arrogantly responded on-air, "We are here to cover ALL the Olympics, not just hockey." I wonder if that debacle was part of what prompted NBC to try the ill-fated Triplecast for Barcelona in 1992.

(Speaking of broadcasting annoyances, tonight NBCSN was supposedly to be airing curling, but they haven't yet. They're showing biathlon right now. I wanted to watch curling.)

I didn't see all that much of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 because a good part of it took place during a family vacation around Quebec and we were camping in tents a lot of nights. In general, I like the Winter Olympics more because I enjoy the winter sports more, although regardless of winter or summer I find it annoying whenever a "sport" depends on subjective judges' scores and not on objective criteria like who's faster or which team scores more goals/points.