The 1976 Summer Olympics

Olympic Park Montreal

While we were in Montreal we took the Metro out to Olympic Park, site of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. The whole complex lacks a grand entrance, and the remaining buildings and property appear worn out and tired. Which got me thinking about how old the park really is - those games were 36 years ago! I was going into my junior year at Iowa State and Jim was not yet my fiance, though we had been dating since freshman year. Can that really be 36 years ago? I guess the lines and cracks in the concrete at Olympic Park match the ones that have appeared on my face during the same time period.

Biodome, Montreal

Pan Am Games, Montreal

We decided to tour of a couple of the buildings, and we learned how much money the city of Montreal lost hosting the games ($1.5 billion) - a debt that was finally paid off in 2006, primarily through a tobacco tax! Can you imagine? I hope they never decide to try to have the Olympics in my town. Of course the murder rate around here would probably keep us out of contention anyway. It was nice to see that they have re-purposed a few of the buildings. We tried to get into the Biodome, which houses an indoor zoo, but the line wrapped around the building several times and we decided we didn't want to see it that bad. The Junior Pan Am games were taking place in the stadium, so we watched a water polo match for awhile and imagined ourselves at the games in London.

At the end of our tour the guide informed us that the Olympic torch was lit, if we wanted to go see it. The only time they light it is when Olympic games are taking place, so it seemed like kind of a big deal. After hiking around for a bit we finally located the torch, which was somewhat diminutive in size. It was very hard to see the flame, but I managed to catch a picture of it with a tree as a backdrop. Not too impressive, but hey, this may be as close as I ever get to anything Olympic. Let the games begin...

Olympic Park, Montreal

Olympic Torch, Montreal