New contracts will expire six months before the Games, giving workers an opening to pit public attention against employers.
Los Angeles could learn from past host cities that have included social equity provisions in their contracts.
With its storybook marriage of private investment and civic management, the myth of the 1984 L.A. Olympics is alive and well at City Hall. But not everyone’s memories of the Summer of ’84 are quite so golden.
Leader of the Pack: Tom Longboat (72) and Dorando Pietri (19) leaving Windsor Castle
When Olympic marathon races first appeared in the 1896 Athens games, the route was a somewhat arbitrarily chosen 25 miles and, contrary to popular myth, had no authentic origin in Greek history. By the time of the 1908 London Olympiad, the length had been even more whimsically extended to 26 miles, 385 yards – the exact distance between its starting point at Windsor Castle and the course’s terminus at a massive, barely completed stadium in Shepherd’s Bush. Among other things, trainers in those days believed it was bad for their runners to drink water while running and instead kept them supplied with shots of brandy, whisky and – in a pinch – strychnine, which was used as a stimulant.
These are just some of the many revelations to be found in David Davis’ Showdown at Shepherd’s Bush: The 1908 Olympic Marathon and the Three Runners Who Launched a Sporting Craze,
» Read more about: Marathon Men: Class, Race and Races at the 1908 Olympics »