1956 Olympics

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Markus Wilding
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1956 Olympics

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OOC: The Olympics will occur once every four months, with the previous Olympics winner hosting the next one. Each one will alternate seasons (winter-summer). Should a player roll out or stop playing, the player with the next highest amount of medals will host the Olympics.

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IC:

The Olympic Games. It has been twenty years since the last Olympic Games held in Germany just before World War II. Prior to the war, the Olympics represented unity in humanity, putting aside politics to participate in the friendly competition of sport. Nations across the world sent their best athletes, to show their best face to the world and bring home honor and glory while they’re at it.

Despite the drumbeats of war across the nation and even the world, the Socialist Republics of America, following several Olympic Committee meetings, has been selected to host the 1956 Summer Olympics. Orlando, Florida shall be the face of SRA to the world, with all nations not under quarantine invited to participate in the Summer Olympic Games.

Following the example set by the last Summer Olympics, the games of the XII Olympiad included diving, swimming, water polo, basketball, 29 different athletic events, boxing, canoeing, road and track cycling, equestrian games, fencing, European football, gymnastics, handball, modern pentathlon, polo, rowing, sailing, shooting, weightlifting, and both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.

In order to host the games, the SRA has constructed a new, massive facility in Orlando, termed the Abraham Lincoln Stadium, with the nearby Frederick Douglass Olympic Village built to house visiting athletes, stocked full with all the modern amenities the SRA could offer.
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Re: 1956 Olympics

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The SRA has elected to send over 300 athletes to the games, owing not just to its status as the host nation, but the current trend of promoting a hearty, healthy population prepared to take up all duties of the Socialist Republics.

However, not all games would have a participating American athlete. The SRA found no suitable Olympic-level athletes for water polo, equestrian games, or regular polo. All other games did have at least one athlete throwing their hat into the ring.

Of course, the SRA was well aware of the potential for showing the best it had to offer, and thus the government-owned American Motor Company elected to run advertisements and sponsor several athletes, with multiple banners approved by the SRA’s Olympics committee for general advertisement purposes.

Although the collective success of American athletes was promoted by many papers, the Tallahassee Times made special mention of a Mark Nijmegener, a rising star in the Florida Socialist Republic’s athletic cooperative. A lad of just 19, with russet-colored hair that was portrayed as perpetually coiffed in the Socialist style, his talent in Greco-Roman wrestling almost guaranteed his selection to captain the SRA’s wrestling team. Alongside eighteen other strong young men, Mark’s journey had taken him from the backwoods wetlands of Florida to the “big city” of Orlando. The journalists of the Tallahassee Times loved Mark - his smile was infectious, he was well-spoken, and even the casual outside observer could tell he truly believed in the Communist system that had been built up in Florida. If nothing else, the leadership of the Communist Party of America would pay special attention to him for the positive light he gave the Socialist Republics.
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Re: 1956 Olympics

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Although Romania has no government sponsored sports programs, Iolanda arranges a committee to tour the country, advertising for athletes to represent Romania on the international stage.

After a week, a few dozen candidates have been found, enthusiastic men and women, although without the perks of strong formal training. They are for the most part middling within their fields, but two candidates have earned places as Iolanda's favorites. The first is Mihai Sadoveanu, who captains the Romanian rowing team, an exceptional, dark-featured man of 23. His fiery devotion to Legionary Romania was just as important a factor as his exceptional team of rowers, which are, incidentally, card-carrying members of the Câini de Fier. The second is Boris Danescu, a towering hulk of a man from rural northern Romania, who stands eight feet tall and broad as a , leading to his nickname "Dealul" (The Hill) among the appraising officers. A weightlifter, his loyalty is not viewed by Romanian command as exceptional, but neither is his intellect. This is, however, an oversight on their part. Although Boris talks very little, he is surprisingly quick.

Additionally, the Romanian football team is ecstatic at finally being able to play internationally. Unfortunately, although famously chivalrous and favorites of King Michael, they are abysmal football players.

Romania has requested that the SRA help arrange for the games to be broadcast back home, on both limited television networks and radio frequencies. Most Romanian households have Radios, and so a commentator, Antonia Aurelaru, has been included with the athletes to help narrate the events in Romanian, to be transmitted across the ocean and directly into the heartland of Romania.
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Re: 1956 Olympics

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The East African Kingdom had considered avoiding the SRA hosted games, but with the emergence of many lesser powers from quarantine, it had been decided to send a contingent of athletes. The Kingdom designated athletes for each event, though many were clearly unsuited for such high-level competition. Just as clearly, the athletes were a part of the Royal Army Services, the armed forces of the Kingdom.

With their particular background and training, the soldier-athletes of the Kingdom performed best in those competitions that played to their martial nature: they put forward strong contenders in the boxing, freestyle wrestling, and shooting competitions. Quite to the surprise of the East African commanders, one young Corporal proved herself to be highly capable in the fencing events. Her performance caught the eye of the Royal Guard in attendance with Foreign Minister Grace Ramogi. She was even approached, following the conclusion of the games, with an offer to join the Guard in service to the Queen.

Though the nation’s athletes were all from the armed forces, it had also sent a large number of civilian spectators and business people to the SRA to watch the games and to participate in the economic frenzy sure to accompany them. Advertising for many of the Kingdom’s products, but most especially those produced by the smaller businesses, was rampant throughout the games. And following their conclusion, many businesses attempted to retain contacts in the SRA for continued dealings.
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Re: 1956 Olympics

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Orlando was proving to be abuzz with activity, as Olympic officials and SRA police guided foreign athletes to the proper stadiums and housing blocks, built with streamline modern architecture. The intention was to show the best face possible to the world, and as such each facility was meticulously cleaned each day and indeed practically even as each athlete went out to compete in the games. Even when outside of official venues, the people of Orlando showed an almost unheard of hospitality towards visiting athletes, oftentimes allowing foreigners to eat at restaurants for free and handing out free drinks. The Tallahassee Times in particular was fond of gathering outside restaurants and the Olympic Village, hoping to catch a glimpse of the athletes to and from their rooms and capture their photo, proving how truly international the Olympics was, and how vast the Southern hospitality of the SRA could be.

On the first week of events, AMC, various East African companies, and a handful of other American companies each broadcasted their various advertisements as Romanian and American commentators watched on, broadcasting the events to the world. Games played this week included basketball, shooting, football and fencing.

Rather improbably, by the standards of the American commentators at least, a highly-anticipated football game between the SRA and Romania ended with the Romanians soundly thrashing the American team in a total 3-0 shutout game. The cheers of the Olympic stadium were nearly deafening, overwhelming the Tallahassee Times broadcasters that attempted to explain such an astronomically terrible performance from the hometown team.

Meanwhile, in the realm of shooting, the East African Kingdom proved victorious over the SRA, at least for a while. Both nation's shooters claimed good scores, though ultimately the skill of the EAK's athletes proved to win out in the end. Multiple series of games ran throughout the week, but in each one the SRA surged ahead for an early lead only to lose it at the cusp of victory to a widely-smiling EAK soldier-athlete. In the end, President Wood himself congratulated the EAK's soldier-athletes, handing the gold medal to one highly-scoring individual and recognizing their excellence. This soldier-athlete was further invited to be honored by the SRA for an "Achievement in Sports Excellence" award, typically a civilian medal awarded to top shooting scorers in the SRA's own athletic clubs.

In fencing, both the EAK and SRA found their efforts stymied, by, of all things, a star fencer from Haiti. The small island nation, despite on active war footing with its neighbor, had found the time to dispatch a handful of athletes as well. Unlike the shooting games, fencing had another round to go before medals were handed out - could the SRA and EAK shrug off their own performances in order to achieve victory?
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Re: 1956 Olympics

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The Olympics were proving rather surprising - and embarrassing - to the SRA hosts. What was meant to show the world a strong face of Socialist pride and strength was quickly proving to be an expensive waste of effort on the Republic's part.

American athletes competing in gymnastics found themselves befuddled by Swedish Olympians competing for national glory and pride, strong smiling faces standing out against the barely-concealed disgust in their American compatriots. For the EAK, fencing had proven to be a sport their athletes excelled in, triumphantly beating their SRA counterpart quite handily. As water polo, swimming, football, weightlifting, and sailing proved to be loss after disappointing loss for the home team, there remained only wrestling. Even the Romanians found success in football, much to the SRA's chagrin after another match proved a shutout.

Wrestling had to be it. The hopes of the SRA were upon young Mark Nijmegener, and if he failed to succeed, the disappointment would be immeasurable. It was the sort of story that the SRA's propaganda arm hoped to make films out of. A small-town Florida boy, up against the strongest of the world, proving that if nothing else, when it came to pure and simple wrestling, the SRA could stand toe to toe with the best and come out on top.

It proved to be just enough to send the SRA to third place overall in the Olympics.

At the end of the competition, the standings were clear. Romania managed to win the most gold medals at 17, firmly cementing their position as host for upcoming Winter Olympics. The EAK, at 14, stood in second, while the SRA sighed with weariness at a disappointing third place 10 medal win.
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Re: 1956 Olympics

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Romania comes out of the Olympic games far better than they could have hoped, with athlete's stories broadcast into every nook and cranny in Romania. Soldiers listen in on the Moldovan front, farmers listen in from their summer farmsteads, and factory workers crowd bars to watch as the Romanian athletes triumph in sport after sport. Nothing raises such commotion as the victory of Romania's football team, with jubilant Romanians taking to the streets in drunken droves. Panic grips the government when King Michael disappears from his guard's presence, and an intense but short lived hunt ensues. It is only a few hours before he is found however, drinking with some friends in the rural town of Comana.

Although Boris carried home his expected Gold Medal (with admiration from many fans, not all of them Romanian), Iolanda was upset at Mihai Sadoveanu's loss to the SRA in Rowing. Though his zealous shouting could be heard far across the water, the American team succeeded in closely beating the Romanians across the prepared marina.

Further upsetting Iolanda, war support has continued to plummet despite national spirit surging. With the only Romanian conflict a fruitless disaster, the citizens of Romania are turning ever more away from violent rhetoric, with the successful Olympics merely giving them a taste for international peace. Radio and television seem far more enthralling than conquering the world; Romanian children, rather than playing at war and being a fine Romanian soldier, are now pretending to be champions in weightlifting, swimming, water polo, and especially, football.
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