Improving the Olympics

Improving the Olympics discussion

What aspects of the Olympics most need improving?

What do you think about Olympic mascots?

How could Olympic mascots be improved?

Discuss these ideas:

• Use a pre-existing character
• Give the contract to a company with experience of designing characters, e.g. Sanrio or Nintendo, and let them decide
• Let the local mayor decide
• Let the local councillors decide
• Allow members of the public to send in their own designs
• Allow designers from all over the world to take part in a competition
• Allow one famous designer to choose the design rather than deciding by committee
• Have a public vote
• Have a public vote in rounds with the designers explaining their ideas and improving on their efforts, like a kind of American Idol for designers
• Employ one famous designer and let them do what they like
• Let a panel of different experts (e.g. a designer, an architect and an artist) decide
• Use an update of a good previous Olympic character
• Have more rounds in the competition, e.g. top 100, then top 10, then top 3
• Give the contract to a famous children’s book illustrator and let them decide
• Let school children design it

How could you improve the Olympics more generally? 

Discuss these ideas:

• Ban cities from holding the Olympics more than once
• Change continent in a fixed pattern, e.g. always Asia (including Australasia) then Europe then the Americas then Africa then back to Asia
• Award it to a country rather than a city
• Have the games more often
• Have the games less often
• Make it less commercial, e.g. less obvious advertising
• Have more sports
• Have fewer sports
• Have sports that appeal more to young people, e.g. adventure sports like skydiving
• Eliminate old-fashioned sports like horse riding
• Allow to public to vote on more things, e.g. who should light the Olympic flame