1960 Olympics

[Markus Wilding]

Due to ongoing armed conflict in Romania, the 1960 Olympics were moved to the secondary location - Victoria. For the first time in Olympic history, the Games would be hosted on the African continent in the city of Dar es Salaam. Due primarily to the lateness in the eruption of the Romanian Civil War, the scheduled Winter Games were hastily changed to the Summer Games, and thus the XIV 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.

All nations not under quarantine, or experiencing an active outbreak of the German Flu, were invited to Dar es Salaam, Victoria, to show the world the strength of their athletes.

OOC: As before, 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. Next Olympics will be Winter.

[Sabriel]

Dar es Salaam was a city of towers. Over the years that Queen Catharine had reigned, the city had boomed in population. And the wealthiest of Victoria’s Houses had competed with one another to build towers in mimicry of the Royal Towers, where the Queen sat in Judgment over the nation. New arrivals from outside the Kingdom were funnelled through several entrances to the city, each of which directed them into areas of commerce where the Victorians flooded them with offers for local wares. The most vocal of those offers were the many colourful variations on the local headscarf that all men and women of the nation wore, often marketed as a symbol of civilization.

The city was patrolled by brown uniformed Security officers, in service to the city itself. And their counterparts in House Security, in more colourful uniforms. Security kept themselves to the background, until there was reason to intervene between the city’s guests and the locals. Most offences were met with fines, but the rare few including violence resulted in arrest.

A ceremony was held to light the Olympic cauldron, which was placed at the foot of a small tower, at the top of which sat a dais where Catharine watched the proceedings. True to her nature, Catharine’s ceremony involved significant displays of pyrotechnics and flame. At the end of the ceremony she declared the games open, and the Olympics of 1960 began.

[Markus Wilding]

Chase Waters represented the ideal American man - fit, strong, a military veteran, and more than willing to lay down his life to further the cause of Socialism. He, along with the dozens of other Americans sent to Dar es Salaam to participate in the Olympics, had but one goal in mind - redeem the image of the Socialist Republics of America after the disastrous 1954 Olympics, which proved to be a disaster for the hosting SRA. Chase Waters was captain of the European football team for the SRA, well-intent on leading the people to victory even in spite of the so-called "lesser sport" he derided.

Other fellow American teams included boxing participants, cycling champions, skilled fencers, and pentathlon athletes, each one aiming for the ultimate prize of gold medals for the SRA.

[Cataphrak]

When the team from the Republic of China arrived, it had been met with surprise, curiosity, and more than a little confusion. Many had thought that the Chinese team would be mostly made up of soldiers, men from the battle-hardened veteran units of the NRA. Surely, after so many years of war, it was they who represented the physical peak of the New China?

But no. There were no soldiers with the newly-arrived Chinese contingent. Guangzhou knew that when people thought of China, they thought of its army and its wars. Now was the time to show the world a different face of the resurgent republic.

So, the Chinese team was made up of civilians, drawn from every corner of the country, from semi-professional athletes, to talented hobbyists, to well-heeled enthusiasts. There was even a young talent from the Hong Kong action film industry, Lee Xiaolong, there to compete in the boxing events.

They were not here to win gold. They were not here to win any medals at all. But they were there for every sport, to show the world that China could play as well as fight.

[Alucard Tobor]

A great debate had been had in Parliament over the Olympics - given the distinctly frosty (or, perhaps, heated) relations between Victoria and Korea, perhaps not sending athletes might be a better call?

In the end, however, it had been decided that withholding participation might send an unintended message to the rest of the involved nations, and so the athletes were sent. Fencing, boxing, wrestling, football - athletes from across all 29 sports were sent, eager to take part and represent their nation and communities to the world.

Though many were professional athletes, some were talented amateurs - much fanfare surrounded Jie Bun-no, star player of the entirely unofficial European football league in Korea. Nonetheless, the public held high hopes for their chosen competitors.

[Markus Wilding]

The first round of games in the 1960 Olympics would undoubtedly set the standard for the rest of the event, and that proved itself remarkably early on.

European football was a sport highly regarded by the Olympic judges this year, as the offseason and rumors of an international football league grew showed the sport to be popular in Korea and, remarkably enough, the SRA. It was fitting that the most anticipated game of the Olympics was to be the Korea-SRA game, with expert analysis claiming Korea was bound to smash the SRA's team, derided as holdovers of a bygone era and clinging to gridiron.

This analysis proved to be dead wrong as the SRA scored goal after goal against the Korean team, leaving the final score 3-0 in the SRA's favor after the first round robin group stage. Once considered a second or even third-tier team, the SRA's ranking changed considerably following the first weekend of play.

Meanwhile, China's Lee Xiaolong faced off against fellow welterweight Walther von Braunschweig of Germany, earning a knockout in the sixth round over the German brawler in a match that would surely be replayed around the world as an excellent example of a strong left hook.

[Markus Wilding]

Korean football proved to recover quickly from the upset, handily beating the SRA, West France, and Kuwait in the second and third round robin stages, advancing to the finals and defeating Germany for the gold medal victory.

Meanwhile, China's Lee Xiaolong again proved himself victorious as he continued to beat his way through opposing boxers, matching wits with SRA welterweight Max Stoner, East France's Nicholas Baptiste-Guillard, and West Turkey's Çağatay "Mr. Sandman" Badem, the latter of which proved to be the title bout which awarded China the highest possible wins in the boxing category.

The SRA's Olympic ventures, however, proved to once again fall short. Third place was not befitting the propaganda line of a strong people fit for all competitions, martial and athletic alike, and the fact that the SRA had once again started strong only to leave disappointed did not much help the stinging feelings that Chase Waters and his team were going through. Still though, they came home knowing they had put up a good show.

OOC: Korea wins most gold medals, and shall host the 1964 Winter Olympics (for real this time).
China wins second place, and will be a backup in case Korea cannot or does not want to host the Olympics.
The SRA wins third place, and will be a backup to the backup in case of catastrophic failure or all parties involved.