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Bon chance, Paris — New York City should never host the Olympics
![Bon chance, Paris — New York City should never host the Olympics Bon chance, Paris — New York City should never host the Olympics](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/07/olympic-rings-pictured-eiffel-tower-85719689.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024)
When the Olympic Games kick off Friday, I’ll be overcome by a powerful wave of emotions.
I’ll be filled with pride for our 592 Team USA athletes, including Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky, who are brilliantly representing our country in Paris, France.
I’ll be giddy about obsessing over weird sports such as dressage and synchronized swimming that only get their moment in the sun every four years.
Most of all though, I will heave a huge sigh of relief.
Because the Olympics are, yet again, not taking place here in New York City.
No FOMO for me! What the chipper, wall-to-wall TV coverage does not reveal is that, as entertaining and inspiring as the international event is, it’s also a hugely expensive, three-week-long burden on already tenuous infrastructure — in the best of times.
Despite being the most influential city in the world, NYC has not once hosted the modern games in their 128-year history. London and Paris, meanwhile, have each put on the Olympics three times. Good. They can have it.
We nearly broke our excellent streak in 2000 when we put in a bid for the 2012 games, but New York ultimately lost out to London.
Thank God.
Could you imagine 15 million more visitors descending on NYC — right now, or ever?
How would we move spectators to MetLife Stadium when New Jersey Transit can barely get locals to work when it’s hot outside? In the five boroughs, our subway trains creak along like Old West wagons, only less clean and more sweltering.
Advocates for a New York City games like to say that the city is masterful at navigating these sort of large-scale gatherings. Er, think about how terrible your commute is during UN General Assembly Week.
Now multiply that by 100 for 19 arduous, sweaty days.
And where exactly would all these visitors go? New Haven? Our hotel room supply is down drastically due to buildings being converted into migrant shelters — and the average cost is more than $300 per night. Short-term AirBnb rentals are illegal here.
There are also environmental hiccups.
Over in France, long-distance swimming events are being held in the Seine River, a site so romantic that ABBA wrote a love song about it. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip on Wednesday to prove how clean l’eau is.
Almost comically, two days earlier environmental groups in New York reportedly ripped the EPA for not reducing “toxic chemicals” in the Hudson enough after 20 years of trying.
For some reason, I can’t picture Mayor Eric Adams doing a cannonball into a melange of polychlorinated biphenyls.
Often, all these years-long, Herculean efforts to clean up waterways, build stadiums, improve transit and stage a grand spectacle turn out for naught.
The CEO of Delta said last week that the airline has taken a $100 million hit because tourists are avoiding Paris during the Olympics.
Bon chance!