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"Off The Record"
A Blog by Jill
M. Geer
A stadium is not a stadium is not a stadium
Saturday, August 15, 2009
BERLIN – During the course of my 9 ˝ years of employment with USATF, I have filled my passport while accompanying our teams around the world. Such travel is an incredible opportunity to see and experience foreign lands; unfortunately, when I travel with a team, about all I see of a city are the team hotel, the stadium, and the route on local roads to and from those two points. If a hotel is a hotel is a hotel, this trip has vividly illustrated that a stadium is not a stadium is not a stadium.
Olympic Stadium in Berlin is one of the most historic and unique athletic venues I have been to in my travels, for many reasons. The first is its locale. It is the only stadium I have seen located in what can only be described as a residential area. Unlike modern ballparks and arenas located in a city's post-apocalyptic outskirts or mid-revitalization downtown, the road to Olympic Stadium is lined with lovely homes and shade trees lining the boulevards. This makes the 20-to-30 minute bus ride from the team hotel, located in the former East Berlin, more bucolic than usual.
As the team bus turns into the 1936 Olympic Park, the time warp begins. The park itself has lovely grounds, somewhat reminiscent of the grounds located at Ancient Olympia, where the 2004 Olympic shot put competitions were held. But whereas the athletic field at Ancient Olympia is organic and modest, a visitor's first view of the stadium is one of unabashed power.
The stadium is an imposing stone structure accented by the presence of huge stone towers, gargantuan statues of athletes (usually nude) and draft horses (also unclothed). On the northwest side of the stadium lie the grounds, called Maifeld, where Hitler enjoyed hosting rallies to display his weapons of war. The entrance to these grounds are perhaps even more imposing than the stadium, with stone that looks as ancient as the pyramids of Giza, with a certain gravity that, to be honest, is just a wee bit scary.
In the stadium proper, art deco-style torches line the walls and the stairwells leading into the spectator area.
Every time I walk through an entry gate as I approach the stadium, the feeling in my gut is always the same: I am walking into an Indiana Jones film.
Every time I view the stadium from afar, it says the same thing to me: "DON'T MESS WITH US." (Feel free to insert a word other than 'mess' into that sentence, and you get the idea.)
Step into the bowl of the stadium and sit in the mostly covered seats perched above the deep-blue track, and you could be in Paris or Osaka; Beijing or Seville. It's a nice, modern, sleek stadium. But look toward the final turn and you will see the cauldron from the famous, and infamous, 1936 Olympic Games. In this section, the Stadium shows its 1936 roots, with stone steps leading up to what is, by modern standards, a very humble cauldron indeed, just a small metal framework atop a platform that is reminiscent of an altar.
Welcome back, Indy Jones!
. In my professional and personal travels, I have seen the Great Wall of China, the ruins of Athens and the great mosques of Istanbul. Berlin's Olympic Stadium ranks very, very highly, and perhaps at the top, of the most awe-inspiring, man-man structures I have ever seen. It was within this structure that Jesse Owens became one of the most inspirational track athletes of all time, and it is within this structure that Team USA will attempt to do justice, over the next 10 days, to Owens' legacy.
Of course, the stadium and its architecture also represent one of the darkest eras in human history. As a student of history, I strongly believe that history's icons should be preserved, regardless of whether they represent good or ill. Berlin's Olympic Stadium and the Olympic Park represent both. If nothing else, being able to approach this stone time capsule to the past conveys an inkling of what Jesse Owens might have thought or felt as he walked to the stadium each day in 1936. It makes his accomplishments all the more inspiring.
As I walked to the press tribune on Saturday, on the first day of competition, I was discussing the grandeur of the stadium with a reporter from Sports Illustrated who also is an inveterate baseball fan. As we chatted about the heft of the stone and the effect of the stadium on all those who enter it, we agreed on what we considered to be a very obvious conclusion.
"They should never change anything here," he said. "Just like Fenway Park."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
For photos of the architecture Berlin's Olympic Stadium and Maifeld, visit http://berlin-germany.ca/attractions/stadiumarchitecture.html
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Jill
M. Geer is Chief Public Affairs Officer of USATF. She recently completed her
first marathon at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, where she qualified for
Boston. Follow her professional exploits as the USATF spokesperson and her
adventures as a mid-pack marathoner -- Off The Record.
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