DENVER ’76: THE WINTER OLYMPICS AND THE POLITICS OF GROWTH IN COLORADO DURING THE LATE 1960S AND EARLY 1970S
Open Access
- Author:
- Berg, Adam P
- Graduate Program:
- Kinesiology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- August 31, 2016
- Committee Members:
- Mark Dyreson, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Mark Dyreson, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Jessica Lynn Schultz, Committee Member
R. Scott Kretchmar, Committee Member
Lori Ginzerg, Outside Member - Keywords:
- Sport history
Olympics
Colorado
Denver
American West
1960s
1970s - Abstract:
- On May 12, 1970, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded Denver, Colorado, the 1976 winter Olympic games. About two and half years later, on November 7, 1972, Colorado citizens voted by a three to two margin to make it a violation of Colorado’s constitution for state funds to be allocated toward the event. Colorado politicians and business leaders had spent years planning, campaigning, and traveling the globe to earn the right to host the winter sports festival. Nevertheless, with funding suddenly inaccessible, Denver’s Olympic planners were forced to rescind their invitation to “the youth of the world,” as Olympic hosts traditionally declared every four years. This dissertation delves into the political controversies surrounding the 1976 Denver winter Olympic games. Colorado’s decision to banish the Olympics was the product of a change in how Coloradans viewed economic growth, combined with broadened understandings of the political power of citizenship. A pro-growth and pro-development mindset present in early 1960s motivated Denver’s political and business leaders to initiate their bid and facilitated their overriding confidence in the notion that they had the support of a large majority of Colorado’s populace. By the beginning of the 1970s, however, the idea that growth and development were unequivocal social goods had been quieted by a diverse set of issues connected to expectations regarding individual rights. Namely, within Colorado, anxiety over the infringement of open spaces near people’s homes, objections to undue spending of taxpayer dollars, and anger that citizens had been shut out of decision-making procedures inspired various people to challenge the wisdom and morality of hosting the Olympics.