Tag Archives: olympics

Paris 2024 Olympics And Paralympics Torch With a Symmetric, Rippled Design Symbolizes Equality

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Both the Olympics and Paralympics share the same torch design for the first time in history, promoting the message of equality.

French designer Mathieu Lehanneur unveiled the Olympic and Paralympic torch ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics. The torch uses an interplay between matte and gloss textures, as well as plain and rippled surface treatment to represent the stillness of land and the moving water of the French river Seine. For the first time, both the Olympics and Paralympics torches are designed with the same form, size, and weight, with the sole differentiating factor being the symbols on each torch. This reinforces a message that all humans are equal in their spirit, sportsmanship, and potential. Paris 2024 also marks the first time that as many women are participating in the Olympics as men.

Designer: Mathieu Lehanneur

The steel lamp, designed by Mathieu Lehanneur and manufactured by ArcelorMittal, boasts of a symmetric design, both vertically and horizontally. The torch comes with a warm champagne color finish (celebrating French culture) and is fabricated entirely from recycled scrap steel, continuing a tradition from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The torch was designed with soft, flowing lines and a smooth, rounded shape, all in an effort to evoke a sense of tranquility. The inspiration for the ripple effect and the reflective surface on one side of the torch came from the serene presence of water and the majestic River Seine.

The main difference between the torches for the Olympics and the Paralympics will be the symbols located around the center. While the Olympic torch will have the Paris 2024 insignia and the iconic 5 intersecting Olympics rings, the Paralympics will replace the 5 rings with the Paralympics logo of three radially arranged arcs, shown above.

The upper half of the torch sports a matte finish on a plain surface

The lower half has a glossy mirror finish on a rippled surface, evoking the feeling of rippled water

Each torch weighs 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds) and is 70 centimeters (27.5 inches) tall, and has a center of gravity that’s located in the middle of the torch, making it easier to carry than the top-heavy torches seen in the past. Organizers say that only 2000 torches will be produced for this edition – 5x fewer than the number from the previous Olympics and Paralympics, with the torch relay starting on the 8th of May next year. The torch will be lit in Ancient Olympia in Greece, beginning its journey to Marseille by boat.

The post Paris 2024 Olympics And Paralympics Torch With a Symmetric, Rippled Design Symbolizes Equality first appeared on Yanko Design.

NBC promises it’ll be easier to watch the Olympics in 2024 on Peacock

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Watching the Olympics in 2021 was a little complicated, requiring viewers to juggle NBC Broadcasts, the company's Peacock Streaming service and a dedicated NBCOlympics.com website. Today the company announced that watching the Paris games in 2024 will be a lot easier — declaring Peacock the "streaming home" of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"In a Summer Games first, the service will stream every sport and event, including all 329 medal events." NBC says it will also broadcast at least nine hours of daytime coverage on the network, which will then be made available for streaming on Peacock. The streaming service will also host full-event replays, curated video clips, original commentary and more.

NBC is heralding the coverage as the Olympic Games return to its "true glory, with full stadiums and the world's greatest athletes" since 2018, but the expanded programming is almost certainly a response to backlash over the network's limited coverage of the last summer Olympics. Although the network did make every event available to watch 2021, most of it could only be accessed on NBCOlympics.com, with NBC television and Peacock playing host to limited key events.

With any luck, NBC's new plans will make watching the games easier than ever. You'll have to wait about a year to find out, though: NBC and Peacock will kick off Olympic Games coverage on Friday, July 26 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nbc-promises-itll-be-easier-to-watch-the-olympics-in-2024-on-peacock-182204595.html?src=rss

‘Fortnite’ is now an Olympic esport

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Ever wish your Fortnite skills could lead to Olympic glory? They can now. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has addedFortnite to the Olympic Esports Finals lineup. A dozen players from the Fortnite Champion Series will participate in an International Shooting Sport Federation-backed sharpshooting competition on a special Fortnite Creative Island. There won't be any last-one-standing battles or building demonstrations, then, but this will give you a chance to see some of the world's best virtual sport shooters in action.

Simultaneously, the IOC has opened up ticket sales for the Olympic Esports Week, which centers on the first in-person finals of the 2023 competition series. If you can make it to Singapore between June 22nd and June 25th, it will cost you 10 SGD (about $7.50) to attend one day or 20 SGD ($15) for the three days of competition starting June 23rd. The Fortnite sport shooting matches take place June 24th. You can stream the events through both Olympics.com and the Olympics' social media channels.

The Olympic Esports Series already included nine games that roughly line up with real-world sports run by international federations. The mix includes Just Dance, Gran Turismo racing, Zwift cycling and even web chess. It's a follow-up to the Olympic Virtual Series from 2021, which covered five digital sports. The IOC sees this as part of a broader effort to foster esports and connect with the video game community.

The addition of a Fortnite island is in step with the Committee's esports goals: this is a "peaceful competition" with a physical equivalent. You still aren't about to see a digital Olympics featuring Counter-Strike 2 or League of Legends. With that said, Fortnite is clearly the most popular game to reach the Esports Series. Theoretically, that could bring in audiences who would otherwise pass in favor of conventional esports tourneys.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fortnite-is-now-an-olympic-esport-143312772.html?src=rss

Grindr restricts location features at the Beijing Olympic Village

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Grindr is tightening privacy controls for the Olympic Village in Beijing. Bloomberg has learned the gay dating app is blocking people outside the Village from using the location-based Explore feature to find athletes in or near the area. The move is meant to protect athletes from harassment or persecution so they can "feel confident" connecting with each other during the Winter Olympic Games, Grindr for Equality director Jack Harrison-Quintana said.

Anyone who uses Grindr inside the Village will see a pop-up telling them people outside the area can't browse the locale using Explore. "Your privacy is important to us," Grindr says in the alert. This is the first time Grindr has provided such a notice.

Previously, Grindr users anywhere could find Olympians through Explore. The openness created a serious problem for athletes from countries that either criminalize LGBTQ sexuality or have strong cultural prejudices against it. The issue is more than just hypothetical — Insidernotes TikTok and Twitter users found numerous athlete dating profiles during the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and an American news site retracted an article that found LGBTQ athletes during the 2016 summer games in Rio de Janeiro.

The potential for abuse was already slightly limited after Grindr pulled its client from Apple's App Store in China due to concerns about cross-border data regulations (the app itself remains functional). If all goes well, though, the measure will let gay athletes connect during the Beijing Olympics without fearing what happens when they return home.

This Japanese architect’s fairytale teahouse covered in a grassy facade is topped with a yakisugi-treated timber loft!

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Japanese architect and architectural historian Terunobu Fujimori is known for his quirky teahouses and fondness for unusual city structures. His latest tea house transports an elf’s cottage from the pages of a fairytale to the concrete of Tokyo. Featuring grassy facades, timber treated with yakisugi, and a lofty vista point, the teahouse, called Goan, is sightly positioned in front of the new National Stadium of Tokyo where it remained until 5 September 2021 in celebration of the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Poking out from the corner of one facade, visitors can crawl through a circular hole, traditionally known as a ‘Nijiriguchi,’ to gain entry to the tea room’s interior. Moving inside, visitors pass through the grassy exterior and are welcomed by an entirely unstained wooden first floor. Functioning as a reinterpretation of ‘Nijiriguchi,’ a small wooden staircase and ladder connects the bottom floor with the upper tea room.

Upstairs, visitors can enjoy a cup of tea and a view of the National Stadium designed by Kengo Kuma. From the outside, the upstairs tearoom inside Goan is visually separated from the first floor with a timber exterior constructed from yakisugi treated wood, a traditional Japanese method of wood preservation. The tea room is swaddled in polished natural wooden panels and furniture, giving the room an air of organic warmth.

Standing as one of eight pavilions that are designed to showcase Japan’s future of urban architecture and art, the Goan Teahouse was installed as part of the city’s Pavilion Tokyo 2021 initiative. The initiative coincided with the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where six world-renowned Japanese architects and two artists each designed a one-of-a-kind pavilion for fans of the games and city visitors and residents to enjoy.

Designer: Terunobu Fujimori

Plots of grass were used to cover the exterior of Goan, a natural choice for Fujimori. 

Inside, visitors access the upper tearoom via a wooden staircase and ladder, a reinterpretation of ‘nijiriguchi.’

Upstairs, visitors can enjoy a cup of tea and city views inside a room decked out in polished natural wood.

The National Stadium designed by Kengo Kuma is a direct sightline from the upper vista point inside the tearoom. 

Fujimori worked alongside undergraduate architecture students from Ouchida Laboratory to finish Goan. 

Fujimori’s plans for Goan are now on display at the Watarium Art Museum.

The post This Japanese architect’s fairytale teahouse covered in a grassy facade is topped with a yakisugi-treated timber loft! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Olympic Cauldron designed by Nendo “blossoms” open to reveal the eternal fire of the Tokyo Olympics

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The cauldron, which was lit on Friday to flag off the Tokyo Olympics, was created on the philosophy of “All gather under the Sun, all are equal, and all receive energy”. Showcased as the centerpiece of the Olympic Opening Ceremony, the ‘kinetic’ cauldron started by first assuming a spherical shape, blooming open to reveal the fire-pit within. The fire was fueled by hydrogen energy too, keeping in line with Japan’s commitment to an eco-friendly Olympics.

Designer: Nendo

The cauldron is the handiwork of Japan-based design studio Nendo, based on an underlying concept by Mansai Nomura, the Chief Executive Creative Director of the planning team for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. The design was arrived at after 85 different iterations, including trapping flames in a heat-resistant glass orb to even a concept with a spinning inferno, designed to look like a spherical sun. The final design uses ten aluminum panels with reflective interiors that open upward and outward, “blooming” to welcome the final torchbearer. “This expresses not only the Sun itself, but also the energy and vitality that can be obtained from it, such as plants sprouting, flowers blooming, and hands opening wide toward the sky”, says Nendo founder Oki Sato.

A distinct feature of the cauldron was its use of Hydrogen fuel, a zero-emissions source of energy. The hydrogen was produced at a facility in Fukushima Prefecture, which is currently undergoing recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred in 2011. Given that Hydrogen burns with a colorless and transparent flame, sodium carbonate was added to it, to give it the unmistakable yellow hue associated with the sun. The sodium carbonate was sprayed into the fire at varying angles, creating that shimmering effect of firewood being stoked.

The overall cauldron measures 3.5 meters (11.4 feet) in diameter when open, and weighs 2.7 tonnes. Each of the 10 aluminum panels weighs a stunning 40 kilograms, and was meticulously cut from a 10 mm thick aluminum plate and molded using a special hot-press machine to eliminate any warping due to heat. The internal drive unit was designed to be as compact as possible, while also being highly waterproof, fireproof, and heat resistant. Mirrors on the inside of the aluminum panels helped ‘multiply’ the effect of the fire by creating shimmering reflections, and the entire installation was repeatedly tested for heat and wind resistance to prevent any error even under highly varying conditions.

At the finale of the opening ceremony on Friday the 23rd, the cauldron was revealed within the Kengo Kuma-designed Tokyo National Stadium, and was lit with the ceremonial fire by Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka.

You can easily make your own products out of recycled cardboard too, like the Olympic beds

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The technique isn’t too different from making papier-mache products, and all you need is a set of molds to really compress the cardboard pulp, creating a robust, durable product.

The response around the ‘anti-sex’ Olympic beds has been pretty amusing if you ask me. Cardboard’s definitely got a really bad rap as a material, because of its ‘packaging’ status. Paper can actually be pretty durable and robust if you get your physics right (try whacking yourself on the head with a hard-bound book); something Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan even demonstrated by jumping up and down on the Olympic village beds to prove their durability. YouTube-based creator XYZAidan’s worked out his own way of recycling cardboard into durable products too, by shredding old corrugated board panels and turning them into a pulp, which he then proceeded to cast into 3D-printed molds. The result is a lot like engineered wood, except made from disintegrated cardboard instead of sawdust. It’s just as durable, and if your molds are designed properly, the end product can come out looking pretty clean and finished. You can check out the process video above, or scroll down to get access to the mold 3D files that XYZAidan made available on his Thingiverse page.

Creator: XYZAidan

If you’re familiar with how injection-molded plastic products are made, the process for working with cardboard pulp is rather similar. You’ve got liquidized raw materials that fit inside a mold, which helps form and compress the fluid mass into a tightly packed design. Once ready, the mold separates into its different parts, releasing the final product. XYZAidan started by first preparing his raw materials. Grabbing any cardboard he could find and finely shredding it in a paper shredder, XYZAidan then proceeded to blend the cardboard strips with water and a water-soluble binder. To keep things eco-friendly and biodegradable, he opted against synthetic PVA glue for a more natural rice paste, made by mushing cooked rice in water over a stovetop to create a starchy pulp that would hold the cardboard fibers together in the mold.

Depending on the kind of product you want to make with your recycled cardboard, XYZAidan recommends using 3 or more mold parts, so that the product can release from the mold easily. Given cardboard’s fibrous, absorbent nature, the product tends to expand inside the mold, so you best create a mold that’s easy to disassemble, or you’ll either break your product or your mold in the de-molding process. XYZAidan took to a 3D printer to make his molds, ensuring that they were robust and had a strong inner support structure since the mold would need to be clamped together.

Once everything’s ready, just assemble your mold and pour the liquid pulp in. There’s no fixed ratio or volume, and a lot of it has to be done by eye. You’ll need to over-fill the mold, since the pulp has to be compressed into shape, and you’ll also need to have separate drainage holes for the water to exit through. Just clamp your mold in shape and leave it for a day, allowing the cardboard pulp to set in shape.

Once you’ve let an entire 24 hours pass (add a few more hours for good measure if you’re doing this in the monsoons), disassemble your mold and your product should be relatively set and easy to pull out. It’ll still be slightly wet, which means you’ll need to leave it out for another day to completely let it dry. Once dried, just trim the flared cardboard bits and you’ve got a final recycled cardboard product that’s robust, solid, yet incredibly lightweight. Depending on the quality of your mold, it’s possible that your product could have those 3D printed step-lines or layers too (see below). The best solution is to either to sand down your mold or sandpaper your products after they’ve completely dried. Then just finish them off with a layer of paint and you’re ready!

The possibilities are absolutely endless. You could create shoes for yourself, stationery-holders like pen-stands or cups for paper clips, robust laptop stands, or even textured sound-absorbing panels to mount on your walls! XYZAidan’s been kind enough to make all his 3D printing mold-designs available for free on Thingiverse, and you can even visit his YouTube channel to see what else he’s been up to.

How to watch the Tokyo Olympics

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After a year-long delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the games of the XXXII Olympiad are scheduled to begin in Tokyo this week. Despite Japan’s struggles to contain the virus and athletes testing positive inside the Olympic Village, the event is still on. The sheer amount of action happening every day through the first week of August means you’ll need to plan ahead to catch all of the events you want to see, especially if you’re on the opposite side of the world.

When do the Olympics start?

The official start to the Olympics is the opening ceremony on Friday, July 23rd at 7AM ET, but a few events will actually kick off before that. The softball and women’s soccer competitions begin Wednesday (Tokyo time), but the first games aired Tuesday night on the east coast. Softball, men’s soccer and rowing are set to take place on Thursday with rowing, cycling, tennis and women’s water polo scheduled after the Opening Ceremony Friday and into Saturday. This weekend is when things really get going, though, with a packed slate of events from Saturday onward. The closing ceremony will air at 8PM ET on NBC on Sunday, August 8th.

How to watch

Jul 5, 2021; East Hartford, Connecticut, USA; The United States midfielder Sam Mewis (3) in action defended against Mexico midfielder Nancy Antonio (16) during the first half during a USWNT Send-off Series soccer match at Pratt & Whitney Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Schneidler-USA TODAY Sports
USA TODAY USPW / reuters

For those of us in the United States, NBC is the official broadcaster of the Summer Olympics and has been since 2000. The network’s current deal goes through 2032, so you won’t have to look around to find the games on new channels anytime soon. Due to the volume of events, NBC proper isn’t enough to show all of the action, so you can also find live coverage on NBCSN, USA, CNBC, Golf Channel and the Olympic Channel — cable or TV streaming subscription required. Following controversy over tape delays during previous Olympics, NBC began airing events live in 2012 despite the massive time differences. During prime time in the US, the network will show highlights from earlier in the day in addition to any live action.

At least a portion of the marquee events — including the opening/closing ceremonies, the women’s soccer final, basketball, track & field — will air on NBC. A lot of the events that take place in the middle of the night Eastern time (which is the bulk of the action) will be shown on the other networks and NBC’s streaming service Peacock. NBC Sports announced that Peacock will be home to “major events live each morning” including women’s and men’s gymnastics, track & field and basketball. The streaming service will also have six themed channels alongside three highlight shows throughout the day Eastern time along with a spotlight series that focuses on the women of Team USA. Olympics coverage will be available for free on Peacock with the exception of men’s basketball. You’ll need a $4.99 subscription to watch those games.

If you’d rather watch from your computer, phone or tablet, NBC says “every single event” will be available through NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. Twitch will also serve up Olympics content, but not live events. There, you’ll find interviews, highlights and, of course, competitions. The platform will also host streams and co-streams with Twitch creators during some of the primetime broadcasts.

Tokyo 2020 Olympics - Table Tennis Training - Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan - July 20, 2021 General view of athletes during training REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Thomas Peter / reuters

Several services and TV providers offer tools to help you keep up with all of the action. YouTube TV, for example, allows you to select which events you’re interested in and the app will automatically record them to its cloud DVR. Here’s to watching swimming at a normal hour and not staying up until 2AM. YouTube TV has also added a medal table for quick reference and its “Jump To” feature lets you hop around events and specific moments easily. Cable providers like Comcast (owned by NBC’s parent company) are offering Olympics hubs on their services for easy access. There’s a degree of personalization across Xfinity tiers, for example, as well as notifications about “must-see moments” and playlists of highlights.

For a full schedule, visit NBCOlympics.com to find info on all of the events you’re looking for.

Fans in the UK don’t have to contend with quite the time difference as those of us in the States, but they’ll still get to watch as much of the action as they want. The BBC is the official broadcaster in the UK and it’s promising over 350 hours of coverage through early August. BBC One and BBC Two will show live events while an additional livestream will be available on BBC iPlayer. The network will have daily highlights and recap shows in both the morning and evening with anything that airs on BBC One or Two available on-demand via iPlayer. Coverage is also available through BBC Radio 5 Live and The Olympics Daily podcast.

The Olympics’ ‘anti-sex’ cardboard beds were designed for sustainability… now they’re preventing virus superspreaders

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Back in January 2020, when the interiors of the Olympic village were first unveiled, the sustainable low-carbon beds immediately grabbed attention. They weren’t your normal-looking beds, in fact, they looked a little more ‘recycled’ than usual; because they were. The Japanese had made it abundantly clear that they were going to focus on keeping the Olympics as environmentally friendly as possible. The medals would be made from recycled metal, the Olympic torch was fabricated from pipes previously used in temporary refugee housing during Japan’s deadly earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The beds in the Olympic village too, were crafted from high-resistance cardboard that could easily take on weights of up to 200 kilos… fine for one occupant, maybe not for two. Back then, the design was hailed as a champion of sustainability with a low carbon footprint. Now, it’s a critical design feature that’s helping keep athletes safe by being a social deterrent.

It’s not entirely clear where the rumor began, but like everything viral on the internet, the ‘anti-sex bed’ theory started somewhere on social media. It’s no secret that the Olympics are also an incredibly social event for the athletes, to put it mildly (type ‘Olympic village’ into a Google search bar, and the suggestion invariably recommends ‘condom’). While the beds aren’t “anti-sex” per-se, Tokyo officials seem to be pretty glad that athletes are a little thrown off by the fact that their beds are made of ‘cardboard’. As Japan is dealing with a coronavirus health crisis (much like the rest of the world), it just seems like common sense to not want the athletes to intermingle (2 athletes already tested positive with 21 more kept in isolation). That said, it seems like Airweave – the designers behind the cardboard bed and the recyclable mattress that goes on top of it – isn’t amused at people trolling their high-quality furniture. “Cardboard beds are actually stronger than the one made of wood or steel,” Airweave said in a statement!

Designer: Airweave for Tokyo 2020 Olympics

The 2026 Winter Olympics torch, imagined by a designer inspired by Milan’s architecture

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While the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics are currently being shifted to 2021, the games of the subsequent years are still on track, with Milan successfully bidding to host the 2026 winter games. Amidst this news, Italian designer Matteo Ercole decided to envision what the torch for the Milan Winter Olympics for 2026 would (or rather should) look like.

Ercole’s rendition of the Olympic Torch captures the true essence of Milan’s heritage and culture. Inspired by the spires of the Milan Duomo, the torch uses an inverted conical design, taking the cathedral’s intricate details and modernizing them. The modern interpretation retains the true essence of heritage Milanese architecture, while having the modern appeal of the works of architects like Stefano Boeri, who’s vertical forest also represents an iconic figure in Milan’s skyline. This fusion of styles is perhaps the perfect representation of Milan, merging the city’s rich heritage with its vibrant and colorful modern life. The top of the torch even comes with a red-colored cross, representing Milan’s flag… allowing it to act as the surface on which the ceremonial and symbolic fire burns.

Designer: Matteo Ercole