The 2282 Charleston Olympics

Charleston, June 4th, 8:00 AM

The day of June 4th is a busy day for the people of Charleston like they've never seen before. Athletes from all over the UMNA have driven or even walked to Charleston to participate, while athletes from all over the world have flown in. Some other athletes are from countries that are not widely recognized, countries that do not wish to participate, or do not wish to participate for their own participating country, and a mixed team is then quickly formed for them. Meanwhile, in the background, workers begin to put the finishing touches on a laser light show organized by one of the finest choreographers in a nation of fine choreographers, Jacques Maxwell...

***

Charleston, June 4th, 8:00 PM

Charleston Stadium, the primary venue of the Olympics, has been filled to nearly maximum capacity by 8:00 PM, the scheduled start time for the Opening Ceremony. Bright lights from nearby buildings illuminate the stadium, until they all start to dim, one by one. Some seem a bit worried, but others are more interested then anything. Eventually, the Opening Ceremony finally begins, with the traditional raising of the host nation's flag, only in this case said flag is not made out of cloth but is projected into the sky itself. Then a military band begins to play the UMNA's national anthem, "Union of the Broken", which begins slow and melancholy before it gets faster and upbeat. The light show then begins to change synchronized with the music to show various scenes of the UMNA's history, ideals, and culture that are invoked in the music. Finally, the light show ends to display the motto of the 2282 Olympics, "Peace and mending in a broken world through sportsmanship."

Then, athletes begin to march out into the stadium. Leading them is the mixed team, represented by the Olympic flag, followed by the American team, the New Vegas team, the Swiss team, the A&A team, the Kahndaq team, and finally the Municipal team. Then, once all of the teams have marched out, the Generalissimo on a podium in a box begins to give an amplified speech to the stadium. He says, "Greetings, people of the world! We, the people of the United Municipalities of North America humbly salute you and welcome to you to the fair city of Charleston, where we will host the 2282 Summer Olympics. For the following days, let us remember the spirit of the competitions as one that celebrates the finest athletic spirit, and put aside any disagreements we may have. We may not enjoy recognizing it, but are one people and we share a common spirit, even in a broken world. We in the UMNA, bitter as we were, chose to recognize this, and together we all became stronger. We are not the only nation that has done so, which is excellent news to the state of the world."

He then briefly pauses, before saying, "But enough of that. It is not enough for us to say we will do these things, we will do them. And with that, I declare open the Games of Charleston celebrating the I Olympiad of the new modern era!"

And then the whole of Charleston breaks out again with light.

(OOC: If you want you can just have your guys post some reactions to the Opening Ceremony. The sporting events begin later.)

The crowds that flew in to watch break out in thunderous applause and cheering.

The first event of the 2282 Charleston Olympics is football. Not men's football, not women's football, just football, although more likely then not there will be more men on the field then women. The event begins with the first Mixed Team (out of two) facing off against the Kahndaq team. For anyone who came to see the first game, they would be disappointed, since the Mixed Team 1 v Kahndaq Team game turns out to be extremely boring and uninspired, with Mixed Team 1 scoring two early goals and the Kahndaq Team failing to fully recover. It ends up 2-1, with Mixed Team 1 victorious.

However, the next game turns out to be much more interesting. The Swiss Team, definitely the best trained and equipped team of all, goes up against the good-but-not-quite-as-good A&A Team. The game goes in the favor of the Swiss Team, which manages to pull brilliant play after brilliant play, putting them on the offensive for most of the whole game. The A&A Team often then recovered, and sometimes scored a goal of their own, but in the end it becomes a 4-2 victory for the Swiss, with loud cheers breaking out around the stadium.

After that, the Municipal Team goes against the American Team. The Americans try to use their wasteland experiences to pull an endurance game, however the Municipal Team has none of that and uses their superior passing, interception skills, and home advantage to confuse and delay the Americans, before making one final endgame push. Although it turns out to be surprisingly difficult, the Municipal Team manages to score just one time before the game ends. The final score is 1-0, Municipal Team victory.

Unfortunately after two relatively interesting games the last game in the first round proves to be rather boring, with Mixed Team 2 goes up against the New Vegas Team. Like the American Team before them, the New Vegas Team attempts to play an endurance game, which actually succeeds this time due to Mixed Team 2's lack of co-ordination. The game drags on and on without anyone scoring a single point, due to Mixed Team 2's excellent goalie, however the New Vegas Team manages to have an endgame pulse and ends the game with a 2-0 victory.

Then the next round began. The first game of the second round was Mixed Team 1 versus the Swiss Team, which turns out to be a brutal 4-0 Swiss victory, using more or less the same tactics as against the A&A Team. Soon afterward, the Municipal Team went against the New Vegas Team, which turned out to be basically a repeat of the Municipal Team v American Team game, if the Municipal Team had totally swept the floor with the American Team that was. With that, the Swiss Team and the Municipal Team were left, ready to face off for the gold medal...

When the day for the Swiss Team v Municipal Team game had come, the stadium was packed with people, ready to see a (hopefully) spectacular game unfold before them. And indeed, they got one. Instead the Municipal Team of playing a game mostly based on stalling like they did in the last two games, they played extremely aggressively and levied the home advantage to get two early goals on the Swiss Team, catching them off guard. However, they then very quickly recovered and did basically what the Municipal Team did, but better, and surely enough in the last ten minutes before the game ended the score was 2-2. The Municipal Team made one final (and deep) offensive push, but the Swiss manage to stop them and instead push back. In the last thirty seconds of the game, they manage to score one last time before the game ends. It's 3-2, Swiss victory.

At first, many of the spectators and Municipal Team players are enraged, but the team captain, in a show of good sportsmanship, shakes hands with the Swiss team captain, and being an actual Captain in real life, he also salutes the Swiss Team. And with that, the rage dies down, as the handshake reminds them of what the game was about. Shortly afterward, one last game was played for the bronze medal, with Mixed Team 1 versus the New Vegas Team, but few spectate as it's one of the duller games of the event. It simply ends with a 2-1 New Vegas victory.

Then, once the event has been concluded, the medals are awarded to the team captains. As a recap, the Swiss Team took gold, the Municipal team took silver, and the New Vegas team took bronze.

The captain of the football team, a professional player from Madrid, returns the Municipal captain's salute. Lots of Swiss flags are waved in cheering.

The New Vegas team is completely shocked to have won bronze. They're celebrating like they just won gold! Of course, who'd have thought they'd actually manage it with just having learned the rules and barely managing to scrape together a team.

While the football event was being played out in the main stadium, the swimming and diving events were taking place inside the Charleston Municipal Aquatics Center, with the only operational Olympic pool in the entire UMNA. The swimming event would give only one set of medals, unlike those in previous Olympics, and would only involve 50 meters freestyle from the beginning end to the finishing end. Although some organizers questioned the wisdom of organizing the event in said manner, most agreed that it would only be fair (and be more interesting to watch) if each event only gave one set of medals.

In any case, each of the seven athletes get into their lanes, and then with the blow of whistle they all immediately take off. The A&A swimmer takes the lead at first, but the Swiss swimmer quickly catches up and begins to get ahead. Meanwhile, the New Vegas swimmer also does surprisingly well, beating out the rest of the pack decisively although still not even close to the two front runners. Several spectators (most of which were people who weren't lucky enough to get a seat in the football game) watch the fast and furious swimmers with anticipation.

Then, a beep sound goes off as the electrical timing and detection system as the Swiss swimmer inches ahead and touches the finishing end, and barely a second afterwards the beep goes off again as the A&A swimmer touches the deep end. Finally, after a bit longer, the New Vegas swimmer reaches the deep end. The event is then concluded, with the Swiss swimmer getting gold, the A&A swimmer getting silver, and the New Vegas swimmer getting bronze. Rancorous cheers rise up for all of the athletes.

***

The day afterwards, a 10 meter diving platform has been prepared for the diving event. Meanwhile, seven judges have been assembled for the event from several nations to ensure impartiality when judging. The event begins with a diver from the mixed team who does a relatively simple dive with a few twists. Based on a variety of factors, his dive was ultimately scored 37. Shortly afterwards, the Swiss diver then made his dive, a straight dive with a bewildering series of turns. The judges are impressed and his score is 67.

Then, the A&A diver came forward. Although he had a relatively good and fairly safe dive planned for the event, the Swiss diver caught him by surprise. Thus, he decided to take a risk and go against the planned dive... a risk that paid off. His dive turned out to be even more spectacular then the Swiss dive, which even more turns and several rotations. Once he's finished, the impressed judges score him 68, just barely edging out over the Swiss dive. None of the other divers did anything particularly interesting, however the New Vegas diver manages to pull off a rather difficult dive with minimal experience for 58 points. After the Kahndaq diver finishes his spectacularly boring dive, the event is concluded. Gold goes to the A&A diver, silver to the Swiss diver, and bronze for the New Vegas diver. Again, rancorous cheers break out for all of them.

They give a polite applause for the athletes participating and eagerly await the next event.

Between events, the American athletes, as they prepare for future events, seem to fall apart. Several fights break out between those who were former Enclave, attacking those who were former Legion. No wonder the American team can't seem to win. They can't even get along!

Ever hungry for stories, reporters from Europe rush to get interviews of them trashing each other.

Then, as the soccer event winds down, the main stadium is prepared for the running and throwing event, the first of which is the running event consisting of a 50-meter sprint. Although some of the organizers wanted a marathon to be included, others thought better of it and decided that the 50-meter sprint would make for better viewing. All of the sprinters gathered on the starting line and began to prepare for the sprint of their lives, with the exceptions of the New Vegas and American sprinters, who had already been in the sprints of their lives. (Or more accurately, for their lives.)

After they all have a moment of preparation, a whistle goes off to signal the beginning of the sprint. From the start, the American and New Vegas sprinters take the lead, although that's not to say that the Swiss, A&A, and Municipal sprinters did badly. The American and New Vegas sprinters jockey for the lead, and they are both fairly evenly matched at first. However, the American sprinter manages to make a last minute push forwards and gets ahead of the New Vegas sprinter for the finishing line. When he gets there, a beep goes off, and then shortly afterward another beep goes off for the New Vegas sprinter. Finally, a third beep goes off when the Swiss sprinter gets past the finishing line ahead of the A&A and Municipal sprinters. The event is concluded, and the gold is awarded to the American sprinter (their first so far in the Olympics), the silver to the New Vegas sprinter, and finally the bronze to the Swiss sprinter.

The day afterwards, the main stadium has been prepared again, this time for the throwing event, for which the scores are calculated based on the average distance of the three objects that will be thrown - the javelin, the discus, and the hammer. The first real thrower of note in the event is the Swiss thrower, who manages to throw the discus and the hammer for considerable distances but throws the javelin a very short one, considerably damaging his otherwise sterling score. The A&A thrower is decent as well, but doesn't make any especially good throws, only three rather average ones. The real highlight is the American thrower, a legionary who does throws the javelin a phenomenal distance and throws the other two objects decently well. Thus, the gold is awarded to the American thrower (two golds in a row!), the silver to the Swiss thrower, and the bronze to the A&A thrower.

The Swiss crowd is rather disappointed that their athlete took only bronze. Athletic companies, on the other hand, take to the New Vegas and American runners and see if they are interested in sponsorships and a trip to Europe to compete in track and field events there.

Well, the Americans are now shocked. New Vegas is kind of getting used to a medal, though they don't appear upset about the throwing.

What sticks with the Enclave Americans is that both times, the gold was won by a Legionary. Of course, this sets off a few more fights.

New Vegas, on the other hand, might be interested in competing in Europe. America is too busy fighting to agree.

At the same time as the running/throwing events, the gymnastics event unfolds at the National Gymnastics Center only a few blocks away. Scoring for the event is based on an aggregation of the vault, uneven bars, and balance beam scores. Not many decide to come see the gymnastics event unfold, most decide to see the more competitive running/throwing events. Still, those who did come find that the event is surprisingly interesting, with the especially talented Swiss gymnast grabbing the spotlight from the moment they came up and getting an incredibly high score of 116. The A&A gymnast comes up next, and does reasonably well, with a fairly good score of 89 that would have won if the Swiss gymnast wasn't so incredible. Then after that, the Municipal gymnast comes up and does a rather mediocre job at 52 points. However, compared to the next three gymnasts from America, New Vegas, and Kahndaq, the Municipal gymnast seems incredible, as said three gymnasts fumbled the events numerous times and did extremely poorly in general. Still, some actually see it as the highlight of the event, if in a rather crude and unsportsmanlike way. Ultimately the Swiss gymnast got the gold medal, the A&A gymnast got the silver medal, and the Municipal gymnast got the bronze medal.

Mary Grayson, no relation to Dick Grayson, bows as she gets her gold medal. The viewers there applaud politely at the other gymnasts.

Considering that American and New Vegas gymnasts had only known a 'vault' as the underground type until a month and a half before the Olympics, it's probably amazing that they managed to show up and do something. Even if the American gymnast sprained her ankle in the attempt and had to be helped out. The New Vegas one just fumbled badly.

The A&A gymnast actually enjoyed doing her stuff and a few A&A coaches offered to help the New Vegas upcoming gymnasts prepare for the next Olympics.

While the gymnastics, throwing, and running events go on, the martial arts event unfolds at the Charleston Martial Arts Studio, with an adapted boxing ring being the location of the matches. The first match of the event is the first Mixed Team martial artist (not mixed martial artist, because pretty much everyone was a mixed martial artist) versus the Kahndaq martial artist. Neither of them are particularly good martial artists, but the Kahndaq martial artist does a decent job and manages to take the Mixed Team martial artist down with a few good left hooks.

Shortly after, the A&A martial artist goes against the Municipal martial artist, the A&A martial artist being very skilled at a combination of kung fu (or more truly to the actual Chinese pronounciation, gong fu) and karate, while the Municipal martial artist turns out to be more or less a random guy plucked from the military with some minimal experience in boxing. As it turns out, the A&A martial artist is far better then the Municipal martial artist, as he easily takes him down with a few well aimed punches and kicks and dodges at attempts at counterattacking.

Then, the match that (almost) everyone had been waiting for: the American martial artist, a Praetorian who was easily the most skilled martial artist competing, versus the Swiss martial artist. a Swiss Army Ranger who was still good but not quite as good. The match opens fiercely as the Praetorian unleashes a flurry of blows, landing several in short order and sending the Swiss martial artist reeling back. However, he recovers, and begins counterattacking, and yet to his surprise the Praetorian doesn't manage to recover as well as he did. Unexpectedly, he manages to take him down, despite taking a few punches to the face, and wins as the ultimate underdog.

The final match for round 1 is the second Mixed Team martial artist versus the New Vegas martial artist. Neither of them turns out to be particularly good, but the Mixed Team martial artist was reasonably experienced as a brawler in a few independent Canadian city-states and the New Vegas martial artist was simply someone who they pulled with a little training in unarmed combat. Still, the competitors seem to be fairly evenly matched, neither of them manage to really gain an upper hand on the other. Still, with a few lucky blows, the Mixed Team martial artist floors the New Vegas martial artist.

Then the next round began. The match between the Kahndaq martial artist and the A&A martial artist can barely be described as a match, as the A&A martial artist takes down the Kahndaq martial artist in a lightning-fast flurry of blows that ends the match in only a few minutes. On the other hand, the second Mixed Team martial artist puts up a surprising amount of resistance against the Swiss martial artist, perhaps he was worn from the match with the Praetorian. Still, he manages to prevail, even though it takes a bit longer.

Finally, the final match with the two surprise finalists the A&A martial artist and the Swiss martial artist. Both of them sweat with determination, this will be the most publicized and analyzed fight of their lives. The Swiss martial artist starts off strong, landing a few good early hits, however, the A&A martial artist turns out to be extremely excellent at dodging a blocking. After gradually wearing down the Swiss martial artist, he spots an opening in his form and quickly takes advantage of it, using it as leverage to start a chain of attacks to take him down. He is rewarded with a resounding "Woah." through the room and of course a gold medal.

Of course after that is the technically final bronze medal match between the Kahndaq martial artist and second Mixed Team martial artist. It's an extremely dull match that eventually ends with a victory on the side of the Kahndaq martial artist through his left hook once again. With that, the event is concluded. As review, the A&A martial artist got the gold medal, the Swiss martial artist got the silver medal, and the Kahndaq martial artist got the bronze medal (their first and only so far in the Olympics).

They applaud as they get their medals. The martial artist from Kahndaq is proud to have gotten a medal and even receives a congratulation by Isis and Teth-Adam themselves.

The next day afterwards, at the Stadium again, the archery event begins. Targets are set up at fifty meters away from the archer and safety precautions are set up so that no one can get hit with a stray arrow (which is admittedly unlikely but possible). The professional Swiss archer shoots extremely well and barely nails a bull's eye, and earns polite applause from the audience. The A&A archer then does decently, although still not quite as well as the Swiss archer. Then, a bit afterwards, the American archer, a former tribal, edges out the A&A archer just slightly. The Swiss archer gets the gold medal, the American archer the silver medal, and the A&A archer the bronze medal. It's a quick and light event, more or less preparation for the next one...

***

Shortly after the archery event took place, preparations were made for the shooting event and a firing range was quickly assembled. It was the final event and the stadium was almost as packed as it was for football. The targets were again set up at fifty meters away from the shooter, and the audience watched in anticipation as the athletes shot at them. The Swiss shooter makes a decent showing, being an army ranger, and the Municipal shooter also does decently well, being an lieutenant major with a lot of practical experience throughout his life. The Enclave American shooter then edges out both of them, however, from experiences in the wasteland. Still, shortly after, Tex comes up and everyone immediately quiets, knowing from his achievements that he was good. He easily hits the targets and outscores all of the others by a huge margin. Then shortly after that a random farmer from Kahndaq does actually fairly "decently" or at least scoring as much as the A&A shooter, much to their embarrassment. Tex of course gets the gold medal, the American shooter gets the silver medal, and the Swiss shooter gets the bronze medal.

Then the lasers were brought out for the final event. Some of the shooters are a bit anxious when looking at them, not really having any experience with them, but the Municipal shooter, Lt. Major Harvan Aden looks at them with a sense of ease and relaxation. Tex doesn't seem to be too anxious either, or the Enclave American shooter. The Swiss shooter begins fairly well, but the Lt. Major manages to edge him out by just a little. The American shooter then does a fair amount better over Lt. Major Aden, and then finally Tex does a fair amount better then the American shooter. And of course the random farmer from Kahndaq fails to even get the thing working. In any case, the gold medal goes to Tex, the silver medal goes to the Enclave American athlete, and the bronze medal goes to Lt. Major Aden. And with that, all of the events are concluded, leaving only the closing ceremony...

They applaud politely at the results. They'll probably send someone from the Metropolis Police Department Special Crimes Unit next time.

(OOC: OK, doing this now before I delay this any more.)

As the last events of the Olympics come to a close, preparations are made in the background for the Closing Ceremony. Unlike the earlier Opening Ceremony, the Closing Ceremony is planned to be in the day and will be much more international in nature. The stadium is closed off for a few days in preparation, while choreographers plan out the athletes' march out into the stadium. Once preparations have been concluded, the stadium is opened again and it's filled to maximum capacity, brimming with people from all over the world. The ceremony begins with flag bearers from all countries (and the Mixed Team) marching into the stadium in single file, followed by the athletes in no particular grouping. Several of them have volunteered to hold a large sign above their head with the words "We Are One Nation in the Olympics". As they file in, flags of every major recognized nation in the world (not just those participating) are simultaneously hoisted on flagpoles distanced evenly in an oval around the stadium, to further enhance the "One Nation" motif.

Meanwhile, the Generalissimo stands in the center of the stadium on a podium beside one final flagpole, and the athletes then begin to encircle to him. Once all of the athletes enter the stadium, he then begins to give a closing speech for the Olympics, "People of all nations, as you all know we are all assembled here today for the Closing Ceremony of the 2282 Charleston Summer Olympics. Let me offer my most hearty congratulations for every athlete who has competed here in the past month, as you have made the finest showing of the human athletic spirit in recent history, and for that you should all be proud. We must cast aside our nationalism for this event and ignore the superficiality of victory and medals, everyone who has participated here has done their best to represent themselves and for that they should be proud. In here, we are One Nation, the nation of mankind, and we must be cheer on our fellows. Now, shall we give them one last cheer!?!"

He gives the audience one moment to cheer before they quiet down, and then continues, "I am pleased beyond words to see the internationalism that has been taken place in the past few days, and especially the past moment. It is good to see that in spite of all of the things that have happened, we manage to keep an important part of the human spirit in our sportsmanship during our competitive events, knowing that victory is not the whole of sports. Unlike Olympics in the pre-War days, we've kept the event clean of performance enhancers and shows of bad sportsmanship. While this may not sound like much, it is extremely impressive of us and shows we have developed our sense greatly. In any case, the games shall move on in just a few months, to whichever nation that may receive the honor of hosting the Winter Olympics. With that, I'd like to raise this Olympic flag at this flagpole to conclude these Summer Olympics so that it may soon be passed on to begin the Winter Olympics."

Then, he moves over to the flagpole and does just that, and before long the new Olympic flag is flying high above the stadium. Once he does so, he returns to the podium one last time, and says, "And so, I declare the Games of the I Olympiad closed and, in accordance with tradition, I call upon the athletes of the world to assemble four months from now to take part in the I Olympic Winter Games." And then the stadium burst with applause, and the Summer Olympics were concluded...