2052 PEELympic Games

The 2052 PEELympic Games, ran from July 10th to 18th, were the first of the modern PEELympiad - the first truly successful attempt to have a mass sports gathering of nations from around the whole region of PEEL. It was held in Lakarian City, Teral - fitting as it was Teral who had just a few years prior attempted a similar event, only for it to be ruined by seeming apathy of other nations - with only the People's Republic of Zedoljev sending athletes - and then by a deadly terrorist bombing that wrecked much of the constructed facilities and killed off the games completely.

However, despite various "incidents", the Games of 2052 went off without troubles, and were considered and overwhelming success - which led to a future of both Summer and Winter PEELympiad. 22 separate teams took part in 19 events - by the following games, both number of teams and events had grown dramatically.

Nominations for the Host City

Before the games took place, the International PEELympic Council {IPC) decided that nominations for the first PEELypics would come from the New Europe/Morbo Bridge area - the area of the region open for applications would rotate each time - and in the end four nations put forward their own Host Cities for nomination. They were:

• Zendivostok of Greater Zedoljev
• Nurdograd of Nurdbotia
• Reeding of New Cyberia
• Lakarian City of Teral

Many countries from around the region used their representatives in the IPC to vote on their preferred choice - however, it soon became a two-horse race between Nurdograd and Lakarian City. Zendivostok never got off the ground, despite the promise of first class existing facilities. Many Zedoljans blamed their Government for a completely lacklustre attempt to advertise the city. Reeding was thrown out by the IPC after damaging evidence came to light over leaked memos coming from the head of the New Cyberian promoters. As the voting continued, it became apparent that votes for Nurdograd and Lakarian City were being split down the political line, with "Red" nations going for Nurdbotia and vice versa. In the end however, Lakarian City emerged with a narrow, but still extremely popular victory.

Openning Ceremony

The PEELympic Stadium

The Openning Ceremony took place on the evening of July 10th in the main PEELympic Stadium - athletes from across the regions, supported by their countrymen and women, as well as thousands of very enthusiastic Terallians, watched lavish fireworks and performances, designed especially to catch the feeling of a diverse region coming together to celebrate unity.

Mayor Roumal of Lakarian City as well as President of the Teralian organising committee made a speech in front of the masses where he spoke of hope that the PEELympics would become a unifying factor for the region, that it would help old enemies come together in peaceful competition and that it would help mend fences and bridge the gaps recently opened between nations. He was quoted as saying "When I look around me tonight, I see the flower of the region before me, young athletes from every corner of the region. And in your eyes I see hope, optimism, energy, dreams. May you show us the way to a brighter, more peaceful future."

Mr Roumal also spoke of the hard work over the last many months of realising the games and briefly touched upon the many cultural arrangements, events and sights the city could offer during the games.

After Mayor Roumal and the president of the IPC had finished their respective speeches, the word was given to President Durion Alyan, who, as Head of State, had the honour of officially opening the games.

"I declare open the Games of Lakarian City, celebrating the 1st PEELympiad of the modern era."

Order of Events and Results

July 11th - 1000m Sprint - Long Jump

Flamish long-jumper

July 12th - 2000m Sprint - High Jump

July 13th - Javelin - Discus - Triathlon1

July 14th - Triathlon2 - Fencing - Soccer

July 15th - Blernsball - Dodgeball - Wrestling

July 16th - Archery - Sharpshooting - Basketball

July 17th - Marathon - Tactical Paintball - Bowling

Final Medal Tallies

Dvorakian fans celebrate Gold in Soccer

Closing Ceremony

Despite various politically-motivated "disputes", spirits were still very high on the night of July 18th. The atmosphere inside the PEELympic Village was best described as "buzzing" and everyone involved looked forward to a dazzling final ceremony. Unfortunately, a bizarre, and at the time, totally unexplainable power outage that seemed to strangely only effect the area of the city where ceremonies were being held. This sadly cut procedures short, but the participants still went away with a feeling of accomplishment - the Games were a complete success - but unfortunately, the region wouldn't be able to sit back and enjoy the peace for very long. Already focus was beginning to divert to a string of Politician murders in Zedoljev, and horrific attacks in Yugopatomia. But it was pledged that the PEELympics would happen again, and roughly four years later, they took place again, an even greater success than before.

Selected Team Reports

Greater Zedoljev and San Fredlando

Events entered: 16
Golds: 1 (Fencing), Silvers: 1 (Tactical Paintball) Bronzes: 2 (1000m Sprint, Triathlon 1)

The GZSF team started off well with Bronze in the first event, which sprinter Nadezhda Pikhova managed despite being disrupted in training by Hudsien evangelists, however things were not always brilliant for the team, and after the fourth event, they would only feature in the top 6 three more times - luckily those three times were medal positions. The obvious highlight was the team's only Gold - captured in Fencing by the rather aggressive Marenka S Sharmatova, who used her knowledge of blades from her life in the Asseniya - Zedoljev's famous cavalry - to maximum advantage. In deed, Sharmatova was described, even criticised, as using the foil as a sabre, and literally smashed her way through the early competition, before managing tight wins in contests where she was considered an underdog. The highlight for San Fredlando came in the 1st Triathlon, when a half-Fredlandian athlete took Bronze and claimed it for his mother's country. However, the worst moment for the team ironically was another medal position - Silver in Tactical Paintball. Up against the Cyberian team in the final, the GZSF were comprehensively beaten - however, the competitors later protested vociferously against what they quite bluntly described as Cyberian "cheating" - bending the rules quite considerably in places and general un-sportsman-like behaviour. However, the IPC looked into the contests and concluded that there was no ill behaviour by the Cyberians, so the results stood. This infuriated the team, however despite rumours of GZSF accusations of IPC fraud and corruption flying about, the head coaches of the GZSF dropped the case to maintain the good nature of the games. The incident however did not do any good to Zedoljan-Cyberian relations, despite fairly good-natured and mutual encounters between the two teams prior - both Governments however accused the other of dragging politics into the matter after the Paintball fiasco.

Aftermath

It soon became fairly apparent that the power outage was a deliberate act of sabotage - and most fingers pointed to The Holy Dominion and their blatantly un-secret EMP weapon technology. It would seem to have been an - ultimately - pathetic attempt at intimidating the greater region as a whole by Pharaoh Set. However, all of that was quickly forgotten as a far greater catastrophe took place involving the Cyberian team. Having dominated the PEELympics, the Cyberians were returning home as national heroes, however, tragically, the plane they flew back to New Cyberia on - the specially chartered PEELympic Dream - blew up in the skies over the Soviet-GCU border, killing all on board. The events surrounding the explosion were highly contentious, with both Reeding and Zendivostok effectively accusing each other of deliberately downing the aircraft. Investigations on both sides have never been finished, and it's the widely held belief outside that both governments are withholding information over the incident - however, this hasn't stopped various works in popular culture from making their own conclusions - on either side of the argument.