USOC: Sloppy mess

    
The other day, I read that the Uncle Wilbur fountain had a "water-themed riddle" printed on its inner core.  


A riddle...say what?  


Because as by now you may know, at least two of our city's fountains (Uncle Wilbur and Julie Penrose) are CHOCK FULL'O RIDDLES.  


So I hopped on my bike and pedaled down to take a look see.


My disappointment upon viewing the riddle was palpable - the answer to the little kid's riddle was "water."


Dissatisfied, I pedaled down to America the Beautiful Park to take pictures of the astrological sigils that are part and parcel of said park (I'll show you those photos in a separate post).


I rode my bike down Cascade, and for the first time had an opportunity to finally see the "UNITED STATES OLYMPIC COMMITTEE" sign on the building right next to the old Hibbards'...which is right next to this odd splatch of red buildings all grouped together...the Alamo building and Plaza of the Rockies...the building with the decal of a guy riding his bike...


I mean, wazzup with all of that?  Speaking as a hometown gal...I was oddly unimpressed.


So, I went down to America the Beautiful Park as a storm was rolling in, and I snapped my pictures quickly; I'm always terrified of being struck by lightning, but especially at America the Beautiful Park - rain or shine.


I jumped on my bike to head east, pumping up the bridge as fast as I could, the air sizzling around with electricity...


...and then, I saw it.


"Wait," I said to myself.


"Wait nothin', negress...we's about to get struck by lightning!"


"Wait!"  I said gruffly to the lesser Spydra, crossing the bridge in the middle of the road.


Spydra the lesser cried out, "We're gonna get hit by a car!"


Barked the greater Spydra, "Shut up!" 


And, with the lightning-phobic part of me dragging her heels, the fearless one returned to take a look at the rooftop mural building.  


"What a freaking mess," I thought, pulling myself together.  With lightning striking all around, I snapped a hasty photograph of the hot mess I saw there before jumping back on my bike and pedaling as though I were being chased.


Thus the blurriness of the photograph - I was breathing hard and my hands were shaking a bit as I took the picture with my laptop; sorry 'bout that.  

Our City's "simple, gorgeous rooftop mural" underway; photograph taken July 25, 2011

Yesterday, I had another opportunity to be riding my bike downtown, only this time, accompanied by my hometown high-school sweetheart (a.k.a. my husband).  We were well ahead of the storm this time, and so we took our leisure.  


I simply had to learn what my husband thought of what he saw there...and he began to expostulate as we neared the building.


"So, they painted it on the roof of a giant shack," was his first comment.  


"So, is that where the Olympic Committee is...is their building that giant shack?  Because that's what it looks like to me - like the USOC is headquartered inside that shack."


"The graffiti looks better than what's up there now.  Are they starting over, or doing the smart thing, and just covering it up and walking away?  How stupid!"


See, that's why I married him.


I encourage everyone to take a look at the painting for themselves.  I keep thinking about the red splattered behind the lettering...what is it supposed to be - blood?


A COMPLETE OUTRAGE AND LAUGHABLE WASTE OF MONEY.


I am in no way busting on the artist; indeed, my heart goes out to him for having been tapped to paint such an enormous and useless thing on such a difficult canvas, in such hot and varying weather, dead in the center of lightning alley.


I came across the article below last night; I enlarged the words that really stuck out to me:


- First, if this guy has been the mouthpiece of the USOC for a quarter of a century, THAT FOOL SURE CAN'T WRITE FOR SHIT.  It's all one giant rambling paragraph...is that some kind of guy's sport's talk?  No, it's not, because they don't write that way in Sports Illustrated.  Some great impression his writing makes - Not.


- The marriage of the City of Colorado Springs to the USOC??  WTF does that mean?


- So the USOC is now our city's "brand?"


- USOC staff are becoming members of numerous boards across the city - oh???  And that's a good thing, why?  Thoughts of Bruce Jenner's plastic surgery face and his high falutin' friends moving in and taking positions of power in our city is not a comforting thought.


 - "and where leading citizen Bill Hybl served as USOC president twice, leading the organization through crisis and on to glory, and now to the commitment by the USOC to continue to call the city its home for decades, with all the attention, huge economic impact, prestige and pride that accompanies it.”…………..this simple, gorgeous rooftop mural finally brings it all together, and it’s time…………this city has struggled for years with an “identity,” and its “brand,”…………..I think we have it now."




Quick:  somebody commission a giant golden statue of Bill Hybl!!!


HORSE PUCKEY.


I encourage you all to take a look do a search for the term "Olympic Movement".  Search this, too:  "Olympic Movement" & pagan.  


One of the last things Mitch Christiansen said to me was, "Look at Banning-Lewis Ranch."  


I have, and it leads me into one big circle.


Mark my words, friends...something's not right here.  

• Doesn't anybody care that it appears as though the USOC (started by Hybl in 1978) only pretended to want to leave Colorado Springs, and the El Pomar Foundation (helmed by Hybl) only pretended to grant the USOC so much generous funding to keep them here FOR SHOW...and a WHOLE LOTTA TAXPAYER MONEY?
• Why did Frank Aries promise to build the Olympic Hall of Fame at Banning-Lewis Ranch way back in 1979? 
• Why am I able to find so little information about what became of Aries, the man with the Greek/zodiacal surname that with a single letter can be so easily changed? (Baries, Caries, Daries, Earies, Faries, etc.)
• Why am I led to believe there's a deeper USOC connection to the unsolved murder of Barbara Freyschlag, socialite, business woman, and wife of K.G. Freyschlag, then-president for the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce?  (K.G. had returned from a business trip to Reno, Nevada arranging accommodations for a Colorado Springs group trying to persuade the USOC to pick Colorado Springs as the home of the Olympic Hall of Fame, when he came home to discover his wife had been shot in the kitchen of their home at 2222 Constellation Drive)
• What's with the Skyway area, where all the streets are named after constellations and signs of the zodiac?
• Why do I see witches, pagans, astrology, the USOC, Tutt and Penrose money in and around the America the Beautiful Park Eye of Horus geoglyph?
• WHY DON'T THE OLYMPIANS MIND STAYING SO CLOSE TO THE POWER PLANT?

Too much time, too much money, too much secrecy, too much oddity - just too much.

Something's not right, and hasn't been, and won't be.

What happened to Freyschlag might happen to me.

Evenso, Spydra has spoken.

  

Here's A High-Five For America's Olympic City!

    By: Mike Moran

    June 15, 2011 

Approximately 112,000 cars or other vehicles pass the downtown Colorado Springs exit at Bijou and I-25 every day, both North and South-bound combined, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation………..do the math over a month, and, well, you get a riveting picture of how many motorists and passengers might be drawn to look at the gorgeous mural that will be painted soon on the rooftop of a building facing the highway just west of our downtown as they drive by………..Colorado Springs is celebrating its 33^rd year as the home of the United States Olympic Committee, our city where Olympic and Paralympic Dreams begin for American athletes, now over 350,000 in those three decades and change………….the Springs is “America’s Olympic City,” and nobody else is, or will be………..it’s a new era in the warm marriage of the city and the USOC, and hats off to the City Council for approving this project, which is targeted for completion by the July 4-10 U.S. Women’s Open at The Broadmoor, with thousands of visitors coming to the city from across the nation………Council member Lisa Czelatdko told The Gazette, “I think we need to start having people recognize that we are unique.” We have the United States Olympic Committee here. It’s a nationally recognized symbol. Let’s utilize it.”…………kudos as well to marketing and advertising agency Vladimir Jones and Chuck Murphy, a constant go-to guy for scores of worthwhile local endeavors, for their contributions………….one can feel the energy and the buzz going on in the city now related to its uniqueness where sports is the subject, and its vast potential for economic impact, quality of life, and the vital “brand” of the city being worked on in various corners and offices………….take a look at the next 75 days of summer in Colorado Springs, and you will see what I am speaking about………..the USA National Boxing Championships (June 20-25), USOC Community Celebration Day (June 25), 89^th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and Fan Fest (June 24 and 26), Sports Corp College Football Kickoff Lunch (June 29), U.S. Women’s Open (July 4-10), and the 2011 Rocky Mountain State Games (July 22-24 and July 29-31)………….and the mammoth USA Pro Cycling Challenge first stage (August 22)……………thousands of visitors will come to watch, cover or compete in these major events, and see the mural and get the message…………the USOC is thrilled with its new downtown headquarters for its staff and leadership, and in return, CEO Scott Blackmun and his team are returning the gesture aggressively…………USOC staff are becoming members of numerous Boards across the city, major events are being delivered to the city, including the USOC National Coaching Conference next week, the prestigious U.S. Olympic Assembly in September, and the IOC Athletes Forum in October………the organization had donated thousands of dollars to city sports and recreation programs, and will conduct eight free youth sports clinics around the city on the June 25 Community Celebration Day, while partnering on numerous events and activities with local businesses and agencies………..recently, I wrote about this vital relationship between the City and the USOC and the backdrop in which it developed since 1978……. “ours is the city where the 1980 U.S. Olympic Ice Hockey team was selected, trained and then staged the “Miracle On Ice,” at Lake Placid………….where Calvin Smith and Evelyn Ashford set world records thirty minutes apartin the 100meters at the 1983 National Sports Festival……..where the USOC voted under pressure to stay home from the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, but then stood up to restore itself, help bring the Games to Los Angeles in 1984, and saved the Games……….where more than 350,000 American athletes have come to train and chase their dreams since 1978………..where 22 of the USOC National Governing Bodies have their headquarters and call home to that sport- Ice Hockey, Wrestling, Swimming, Basketball, Boxing, Figure Skating, Triathlon, Cycling among them, and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency………..where the immortal Jesse Owens gazed at Pikes Peak in the fall of 1979 and said “Maybe, some day, we can all come together on the victory stand, set aside our differences, and be champions”…………. Where four-time Olympic discus champion Al Oerter and legendary swimming champion Mark Spitz set out to begin a comeback after forty and chase another dream………..where Wilma Rudolph coached young girls on the track……….where Mary Lou Retton, discouraged over her performance in 1983, thought of retiring, but changed her mind over breakfast and triumphed………….where a young Michael Jordan hit jump shots and showed us a glimpse of brilliance, playing in the National Sports Festival in town, as did stars like Greg Louganis, Florence Griffith Joyner, Sippy Woodhead, Willie Gault, Bart Conner, Mike Eruzione, Jim Craig, Mark Johnson, Linda Fratianne and Kurt Thomas……….where Peggy Fleming, Amy Van Dyken, Apolo Ohno and Rulon Gardner trained and lived for their triumphs……….where Olympic decathlon champion Bob Mathias directed activities at the Olympic Training Center………… where more than 35,000 athletes of all ages and skill levels came in 2005, 2007 and 2009 to compete in the State Games of America……..and where leading citizen Bill Hybl served as USOC president twice, leading the organization through crisis and on to glory, and now to the commitment by the USOC to continue to call the city its home for decades, with all the attention, huge economic impact, prestige and pride that accompanies it.”…………..this simple, gorgeous rooftop mural finally brings it all together, and it’s time…………this city has struggled for years with an “identity,” and its “brand,”…………..I think we have it now.

Mike Moran was the chief spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee for a quarter century, through thirteen Games, from Lake Placid to Salt Lake City. He joined the USOC in 1978 as it left New York City for Colorado Springs. He was the Senior Communications Counselor for NYC2012, New York City’s Olympic bid group from 2003-2005 and is now a media consultant and works with the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation. www.coloradospringssports.org.  He can be reached atmike@thesportscorp.org