--- title: Why No Country Wants to Host the Olympics description: Why nobody wants to host the Olympics anymore, and the free speech conflict behind the FBI's iPhone demands. canonical: https://time.com/4244499/nobody-wants-host-olympics/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-02T17:01:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:19.371Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why No Country Wants to Host the Olympics og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4244499/nobody-wants-host-olympics/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why No Country Wants to Host the Olympics twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why No Country Wants to Host the Olympics by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 2, 2016 5:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Mar 2, 2016 5:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Why doesn’t anyone want to host the Olympics anymore?**](http://espn.go.com/olympics/story/%5F/id/14855123/backlash-olympics-ioc-demands-much-more-rio-woes) By Johnette Howard at ESPN **2\.** [**Here’s why freedom of speech is at the heart of the battle between Apple and the FBI.**](http://www.dailydot.com/politics/apple-iphone-doj-fbi-code-speech-calea-cindy-cohn-interview/) By Eric Geller in the Daily Dot **3\.** [**These self-cleaning, free, public toilets are taking aim at India’s sanitation gap.**](http://mashable.com/2016/03/01/chennai-india-electronic-toilets/#SJ6xoT%5Fg6EqT) By Sonam Joshi in Mashable **4\.** [**Iran’s hedged democracy is still worthy of optimism.**](http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/iraninsight/iranians-once-again-make-lemonade-from-lemons) By Barbara Slavin at the Atlantic Council **5\.** [**NASA wants to bring back supersonic commercial jets.**](http://www.engadget.com/2016/03/01/nasa-supersonic-jet-design-award/) By Steve Dent in Engadget  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4244499/nobody-wants-host-olympics/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4244499/nobody-wants-host-olympics/"},"headline":"Why No Country Wants to Host the Olympics","datePublished":"2016-03-02T17:01:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:19.371Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4244499/nobody-wants-host-olympics/","keywords":["Innovation","Iran","olympics","NASA","India","iPhone"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4244499/nobody-wants-host-olympics/","name":"Why No Country Wants to Host the Olympics"}}]}] ```