The Olympic Ruins of Beijing 2022 is an article I really want to write, but I’m sure certain Olympic venues in China’s capital will go down faster than opposition members – and Covid making international travel rather complicated I hope some locals will take over. Instead today we’ll focus on the Demolished Olympic Ruins Of Sapporo 1972, a small follow-up on an article I wrote a decade ago!
Happy New Year! Well, most likely not when you are an Uyghur, but more than a billion Chinese people are probably having a jolly good time today and the days to come… Especially Winnie the Xi(thead)! Not only can he stuff his face without regrets due to the holidays, in a few days the years long bribery of IOC members will finally pay off and he can present his home country to the world like the Nazis did Theresienstadt to the Red Cross. By his side: Thomas Bach, who probably would be in jail or dead for acting like he did in the past few years, if he were a Chinese politician and not the president of the International Olympic Committee. Those two must be so proud! Finally Olympic Games again in a country with concentration camps after only 86 years…
*hrumph* Where was I? Oh, yes, focusing on the demolished ruins of the Sapporo Olympic Games… Usually around the beginning or the end of Olympic games I re-release a photo of the bobsleigh goal house of the 1972 Olympics that I first published in an article called “The Olympic Ruins Of Sapporo 1972” back in 2012. It was one of the few abandoned buildings worldwide with the Olympic Rings still attached, and it was already partly collapsing and covered by snow, so overall a nice photo. That building was demolished in early 2017 and I took some photos of it two years later. Rather unspectacular on a grey, overcast day – pretty miserable actually. Since there was no snow this time you can actually see more of the abandoned bobsleigh track, which was still there at the time of my visit. And I doubt that they will ever demolish that concrete half-tube… Maybe they can refurbish it? Apparently Sapporo is a candidate for the Olympic Winter Games 2030!
And now let’s raise a glass to the Lightning Seeds and their missed opportunity of making a buck remaking their most famous song for the Beijing Olympics: “It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming…”
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Abandoned Kansai 
horrible and sad for so many reasons, many of which you stated at the beginning
Amen, Beth. Indeed. My heart feels a wee heavier today.
Thanks a lot, Beth! The topic was actually hard to navigate for me as some of my colleagues are Chinese, from Hong Kong and the mainland…
Love you and your writing but this time, honestly, you hit a homerun… the first 2 paragraphs are so full of truth. Not saying the rest isn’t fascinating but let’s say it like it is for the rest of the world to see. Florian, you are such an honest photographer and a voice in what is increasingly becoming a wilderness. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your kind words! I enjoy writing those rants, but every time I do, I feel like they are a big risk in our days of cancel culture – even for a small blog like mine. So I stick with the topics (I think) I know well, though I’d love to rant about more BS topics, like fast fashion (for which I had the opportunity to do so recently – when writing about the Clothing School).
cool :). i remember the original article haha. the idea of them refubrishing the bobsled track is interesting and it certainly would be a much smaller waste of resources than tho build another one just for a few days, but something tells me thats probably not going to happen, lol…
I’m so glad that I did the original article, although getting there and back was a pain back then; this time I cheated and took a taxi to a nearby country club… 🙂 But the photo of the building with the rings… easily one of my top 50 photos. I just hope that Sapporo won’t get the games again. It’s a great city for many reasons, but the Olympics have changed and Tokyo 2020/1 was a disaster – not just for Tokyo, but for the whole country.
You do not post very often, any longer. Are you okay? Or simply not having the time due to grown-up responsibilities? :o)
Hey Benjamin,
Grown-up responsibilities sums it up pretty well – add a few personal disappointments and the increasingly depressing fact that I haven’t seen my family in almost three years due to Covid and you have a pretty good explanation for the lack of postings in the past year or two. I’m currently preparing a rather big article for next week (Tuesday or Wednesday Japanese time), explaining the current situation a little bit.
How will the blog continue after that? Your guess is as good as mine – I’d love to go back to weekly articles, but it’s more likely that I’ll revive Duke Nukem Forever’s “When it’s done!” – hopefully less vaporware and much better quality when the next article is finally done… 🙂
Hi Florian,
Thanks for your great reply. Covid has been tough for us all, in one way or another. – Not being able to travel back to Germany, for the family must be hard. – I have been through stuff myself, with stress on work, 3 small kids requiring a lot of attention, I simply didn’t have etc. – Long story short, don’t mind my problem, but please promise me you take care of yourself. Do stuff that ‘recharge your batteries’ etc.
I love your blog. Check it once a month or so, but don’t mind the blog. Take care of yourself.
Love your work and pictures, and will look forward to your post next week.
/Benjamin