In the years 2007-2009, Chicago was ablaze with Olympic fever as the city vied to host the 2016 Games. Though Rio ultimately won the bid, the campaign left a semi-indelible mark on the city’s landscape and its residents’ memories.
A trip down memory lane
With the 2024 Paris Olympics happening now, my house is full of Olympic spirit. I told my 8-year-old and 5-year-old daughters about the Chicago bid. I wanted to show them photos of what Chicago looked like back then with all the posters. So feeling nostalgic, I went into my archives to pull these photos.
To complement my series of Olympic bid photos, I also wanted to see what other photos people took of Chicago’s bid, so I searched the Internet.
The Chicago 2016 Flickr account
Sixteen years after the bid, I stumbled upon the official Flickr account for Chicago 2016: flickr.com/photos/chicago2016. Active during 2008-2009, this account showcased event photos promoting Chicago’s Olympic dreams. As an avid Flickr user during that period, I was surprised I had missed this account at the time.
The account houses 2,126 photos, mostly featuring supporters holding “I support the bid” cards. A few standout images capture Michael Phelps teaching kids to swim in 2008. (Photos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) However, the real shock came as I neared the end of the photo stream.
An unexpected personal connection
To my amazement, the eighth photo from the end was one of my own! This means that when setting up their account, Chicago 2016 chose one of my photos as one of their initial uploads. It’s a connection I’m only discovering now, 16 years later.
- April 18, 2007: my original photo posted on my Flickr account
- April 12, 2008: my photo posted on the Chicago 2016 Flickr account
Here’s a handful of my other Chicago 2016 photos (taken in 2007).
Sharing the Olympic Spirit
To give my children a broader perspective, I’ve curated a collection of Chicago 2016 photos from various Flickr users. These images capture the city’s enthusiasm and the visual transformation brought about by the Olympic bid.
You can view this curated collection by searching my Flickr favorites for: Chicago 2016 Olympics.
While Chicago’s Olympic dream didn’t materialize, these photos serve as a vibrant reminder of a time when the city dared to dream big, uniting its residents in a shared vision of hosting the world’s greatest sporting event.
We were so full of hope back then! I remember all of these photos! And funny enough I was over on flickr just yesterday! I have my website downloaded and thanks to a great tech geek, all the links are active and once such link was to flickr! I didn’t spend a lot of time deep-diving but it was interesting! Regardless, the Olympic bid meant a lot to Chicago. At this point I think we should be having the Olympics in cities that have already put in the infracstructure and the facilities rather than having new cities invest. My, how the world has changed! Thanks for the trip down this road!
I’ve been on Flickr a bit more recently, because it’s 10,000 times easier to search for photos on Flickr than Instagram. For instance, today I was searching for photos of the Silver Man in Chicago. On Flickr it’s easy, just search for: silver man Chicago. Makes sense. On Instagram, how do you search for that? YOU CAN’T! The only search I can do is to mashup the words together. The hashtag #silvermanchicago on Instagram has zero results.
I cannot stand Instagram.