Berlin presents bid to rehost Olympics with 100th anniversary of 1936 Games looming

BERLIN (AP) — Berlin has formally presented its bid to rehost the Olympics in the same stadium where Jesse Owens starred during the 1936 Games under the Nazis.

Berlin Sports Minister Iris Spranger on Tuesday said the city wants to put on a sustainable Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2036, 2040 or 2044, by refurbishing existing sports venues.

But her announced plans to include the former airport Tempelhof are likely to be resisted by locals who already opposed any development of the popular city park in a 2014 referendum.

Spranger envisaged beach volleyball at the Brandenburg Gate, and water sports in Grünau, a riverside locality which also staged water sports in 1936.

Otherwise, Spranger gave few details during the presentation, saying the bid was still at concept phase.

“You'll have to be patient,” she told a journalist.

Many Berliners are against the idea of staging the Olympics at all, regardless of them potentially taking place on the 100th anniversary of the Games already hosted by the Nazis. An initiative called “NOlympia Berlin” has already announced plans to block it by collecting enough signatures to force a referendum.

Munich's bid to host the Winter Games in 2022 and Hamburg's hopes of hosting the Summer Games in 2024 were both foiled by referendums.

Spranger said she was against a referendum, saying she preferred “dialogue with one another. Not just yes or no, but that the public really knows what we're planning.”

But for that, Tuesday's presentation was little help.

Local politician Klara Schedlich of the opposition Green party spoke against the bid.

“Our tax money is better spent on sports clubs than the IOC,” Schedlich said, referring to the International Olympic Committee.

Berlin’s bid — titled “Berlin+” with support from the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Schleswig-Holstein — is to be presented to the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) before an end-of-month deadline.

International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons said Wednesday that another bid would be “very positive” sign for future Games. He’s also a member of the IOC’s Future Host Commission.

“The more quality bids we have to work with, the better,” Parsons, who was in Brisbane, Australia meeting organizers of the 2032 Games, said. “We can compare different Games propositions ... the different visions for different Games going to different parts of the world.

“So if they (Berlin) put together a good bid, I think it’s very welcome.”

It will be up to the DOSB to decide which Games to bid for. Los Angeles is hosting the 2028 Olympics and Brisbane the 2032 Olympics, so the next available edition will be 2036, the 100th anniversary of the Berlin Games.

“I believe that the 2036 Games, regardless of where they take place, will also focus on the Nazi Games of 1936. That’s part of history and attention will be paid to it,” Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner said. “I have to tell you, I’m proud to be the governing mayor of a city that has changed in the last 100 years, that we no longer stand for dictatorship, exclusion, and mass violence, but that Berlin is now a cosmopolitan, international metropolis, a colorful, diverse city.”

The DOSB previously said a German bid for 2040 was also possible. Munich, Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia also plan bids. A final decision on a German bidder is expected by fall next year.

“It's important for Germany to make a bid. We’re making an offer here today,” Wegner said.

The formal presentation took place in the same battle-scarred stadium, Berlin’s Olympiastadion, where Adolf Hitler watched Owens, the Black American athlete, win four gold medals in the 1936 Games, dealing a blow to Hitler's notions of racial superiority.

Hitler was personally involved in the design and construction of the 100,000-seat track-and-field stadium after the Nazis assumed power in 1933, two years after the Games were awarded to the city.

AP Sports Writer John Pye contributed from Brisbane, Australia.

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FILE - In this Friday, Oct. 5, 2018 photo people walk down the stairs in the stands of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, file)

FILE - The sun sets behind the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)

FILE - The Aug. 23, 2009 file photo shows the Olympic stadium pictured in Berlin. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Richard “Dick” Codey, a former acting governor of New Jersey and the longest serving legislator in the state's history, died Sunday. He was 79.

Codey’s wife, Mary Jo Codey, confirmed her husband’s death to The Associated Press.

“Gov. Richard J. Codey passed away peacefully this morning at home, surrounded by family, after a brief illness,” Codey's family wrote in a Facebook post on Codey's official page.

"Our family has lost a beloved husband, father and grandfather -- and New Jersey lost a remarkable public servant who touched the lives of all who knew him," the family said.

Known for his feisty, regular-guy persona, Codey was a staunch advocate of mental health awareness and care issues. The Democrat also championed legislation to ban smoking from indoor areas and sought more money for stem cell research.

Codey, the son of a northern New Jersey funeral home owner, entered the state Assembly in 1974 and served there until he was elected to the state Senate in 1982. He served as Senate president from 2002 to 2010.

Codey first served as acting governor for a brief time in 2002, after Christine Todd Whitman’s resignation to join President George W. Bush’s administration. He held the post again for 14 months after Gov. Jim McGreevey resigned in 2004.

At that time, New Jersey law mandated that the Senate president assume the governor’s role if a vacancy occurred, and that person would serve until the next election.

Codey routinely drew strong praise from residents in polls, and he gave serious consideration to seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2005. But he ultimately chose not to run when party leaders opted to back wealthy Wall Street executive Jon Corzine, who went on to win the office.

Codey would again become acting governor after Corzine was incapacitated in April 2007 due to serious injuries he suffered in a car accident. He held the post for nearly a month before Corzine resumed his duties.

After leaving the governor’s office, Codey returned to the Senate and also published a memoir that detailed his decades of public service, along with stories about his personal and family life.

“He lived his life with humility, compassion and a deep sense of responsibility to others,” his family wrote. “He made friends as easily with Presidents as he did with strangers in all-night diners.”

Codey and his wife often spoke candidly about her past struggles with postpartum depression, and that led to controversy in early 2005, when a talk radio host jokingly criticized Mary Jo and her mental health on the air.

Codey, who was at the radio station for something else, confronted the host and said he told him that he wished he could “take him outside.” But the host claimed Codey actually threatened to “take him out,” which Codey denied.

His wife told The Associated Press that Codey was willing to support her speaking out about postpartum depression, even if it cost him elected office.

“He was a really, really good guy,” Mary Jo Codey said. “He said, ‘If you want to do it, I don’t care if I get elected again.’”

Jack Brook contributed reporting from New Orleans.

FILE - New Jersey State Sen. and former Democratic Gov. Richard Codey is seen before New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy delivers his State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature at the statehouse, in Trenton, N.J., Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)