谁将代表美国申办2024奥运会?

Pick Me! Four American Cities Put Best Olympic Foot Forward

谁将代表美国申办2024奥运会?

The United States Olympic Committee seems ready to bid for the 2024 Summer Games. But the hard part is deciding which of the four finalists — Boston, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco — has the best chance of being chosen by the International Olympic Committee. The U.S.O.C. could make its selection as soon as this week, so we asked New York Times reporters in each city to describe the view from each place.

美国奥委会看来要准备竞争2024年夏季奥运会的主办权了。但要在波士顿、华盛顿、洛杉矶和旧金山这四个最终入围名单中挑选出那个最有机会赢得国际奥委会青睐的城市，可不是一件容易的事情。美国奥委会最快本周就会做出决定，所以我们请来时报驻这四座城市的记者，让他们写写自己眼中的这场竞争。

1. Boston

波士顿

A couple of years ago, The Onion ran a satirical piece about Bostonians pretending to live in a big city. It said residents “buzz about their daily routines in a delightful hubbub of excitement as if they lived in a major American metropolis.”

一两年前，《洋葱新闻》(The Onion)登过一篇文章，讽刺波士顿人假装自己是生活在一座大城市里。文章写道，这里的居民“以一种可爱的兴奋热闹劲儿过着他们的日常生活，仿佛真以为自己住在一个美国大都会呢”。

Some people laughed, some were defensive. But few disputed that Boston is wrapped up in an existential debate with itself about whether it is a “world-class” city.

对于这篇文章，有人哈哈大笑，有人则为这座城市辩护。但有一点倒是争议不大，那就是波士顿全身心地投入到自己究竟是不是一座“世界级”城市的存在主义的辩论中。

Despite its many obvious assets — world-renowned universities, top-flight medical centers, a thriving biotech-driven innovation economy and championship sports teams, not to mention Tom Brady and David Ortiz — Boston still has an inferiority complex. And as it makes its first serious bid to host the Olympics, it shows.

虽然这里有着众多为大家所认同的优势——世界闻名的大学、一流的医疗机构、以生物科技为创新驱动力的繁荣经济、冠军运动队，更别提汤姆·布拉迪(Tom Brady，著名的橄榄球运动员——译注)和戴维·奥尔蒂斯(David Ortiz，著名的棒球运动员——译注)这些如雷贯耳的名字，但波士顿始终有着一种自卑情结。随着该城首次正儿八经地竞标奥运会主办权，这种情结也是一览无遗。

Some seem to think that being picked to put on the 2024 Summer Games is entwined with mythic world-class status.

有些人似乎认为被选为2024夏季奥运会的举办城市，是与所谓的世界级城市地位息息相关的一件事。

“Boston is a global leader in innovation, and in order to remain a global leader, we must be aspirational,” the pro-Olympic Boston2024 website says.

“波士顿在创新方面是全球的领导者，为了保持领导者地位，我们必须充满对胜利的抱负，”一个主张举办奥运会的网站Boston2024写道。

To Boston’s mayor, Martin J. Walsh, an initial skeptic of the bid, hosting the Olympics “puts us on a scale not too many cities can claim.”

对于波士顿的市长马丁·J·沃尔什来说(起初他对于争办奥运持怀疑态度)，主办奥运“把我们放到了只有为数不多的城市所具备的级数上”。

Mike Ross, a former Boston city councilman, argued that the Olympics are a good idea “and not just for the reasons one might think, such as helping us get over our persistent ‘smaller than New York’ Napoleon complex.”

波士顿前市议会议员迈克·罗斯(Mike Ross)认为，举办奥运是一件好事，“不仅仅是大家能想到的那些原因，比如帮我们克服一直以来的‘比纽约要小’的拿破仑情结。”

Whether winning an Olympics confers world-class status, Boston’s bid contains an inherent paradox: Its dream to make it big is not that big.

不管赢得奥运会的举办权是否会带来世界级城市的地位，波士顿的努力包含一个自相矛盾之处：它的大城梦想其实并没有那么大。

Boston’s modest $4.5 billion proposal envisions a new Olympic model: a walkable, bikeable, sustainable Games that uses mostly pre-existing structures. This compact city of 646,000 plans a downsized, compressed, antisprawl Olympics. No venue would be more than a 10-minute walk from a subway stop or a commuter rail line.

波士顿的承办方案只有区区45亿美元，它想像出一个全新的奥运模式：一个主要利用现有建筑、可以用步行或骑自行车作为交通方式、具有可持续发展性的运动会。这座有着64.6万人口的小巧城市计划的是一个规模缩小的、紧凑的、不搞场馆散乱分布的奥运会。所有的比赛地点，都在地铁站或者通勤火车线路10 分钟步行路程之内。

The International Olympic Committee has been forced to encourage this kind of thinking. Interest in hosting has declined as potential hosts watched costs spiral out of control for recent Games in Beijing ($40 billion) and Sochi, Russia ($50 billion).

国际奥委会也被迫鼓励此种思路。一些有兴趣主办奥运会的城市看到最近的北京奥运会和俄罗斯索契冬奥会的成本节节攀升，直至失控(北京400亿美元，索契500亿美元)，纷纷打起了退堂鼓。

Still, one might wonder if Boston’s proposal was actually made by The Onion: The athletes could live in college dormitories that are empty during the summer; the modular housing of an Olympic village could later become new dorms; and a proposed $700 million Olympic Stadium would be temporary, so it could be razed or relocated.

然而，波士顿的方案还是让人忍不住疑惑，这不会是《洋葱新闻》整出来的方案吧：运动员住在暑假空出来的大学宿舍;标准间搭造的奥运村可以变成新的宿舍楼;一座计划投资7亿美元的奥运主场馆将是临时性的，会后可以拆掉或者搬到其他地方。

Does anyone think this might be carrying Yankee frugality too far? And are Olympic bigwigs serious about not wanting an extravaganza?

会不会有人因此而认为北方佬太抠门?那些奥委会要人真的对铺张华丽不再感冒了吗?

Either way, the Boston promoters are trying to win over naysayers by promising tangible benefits like upgrades in roads, bridges and public transit. But many wonder why it would take the Olympics to get those much-needed improvements. The Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi wrote that the promoters were giving Bostonians an impossible choice: Buy in to their bid to get a modern transportation system, or “be labeled a small-minded, provincial party-pooper.”

不管怎样，波士顿举办奥运会的推动者正在努力争取那些唱反调的人，他们许以种种实在的好处，比如修路、修桥，更新公交系统。但许多人都想知道，为什么基础设施的改进非得通过奥运会来完成。《波士顿环球报》(The Boston Globe)的专栏作家琼·文诺奇(Joan Vennochi)写道，波士顿举办奥运会的推动者向波士顿人提供了一个棘手的选择：想要一个现代的交通系统就要支持办奥运，否则“就要被贴上心胸狭隘、没见过世面的扫兴鬼的标签”。

And there you have it: Without the Olympics, Boston cannot be world class. KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

所以你看：不举办奥运会的话，波士顿就不可能成为世界级的城市。KATHARINE Q. SEELYE