Berlin Wins Gold. In the Withdrawal Event.

Once upon a time there was a city that wanted to build an airport. That took a while. Then it wanted the Olympic Games, together with Brandenburg, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, working title "Berlin+". The plus presumably stood for the costs.

Now it is over. Berlin has withdrawn its bid for the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Summer Games before the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) could decide. Behind Munich and Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr, the capital was seen as a rank outsider anyway. The evaluation commission gave Berlin 74.64 out of 100 points. By Berlin standards, that is a very good grade. The airport would have been thrilled.

45 seconds that changed everything

The decisive blow came from the election. The coalition that had pushed the Olympics was voted out. Election winner Elif Eralp of the Left party, who could become Governing Mayor, declared the matter "done" the day after the vote. Berlin's Olympics commissioner accused her of sweeping the bid off the table "within 45 seconds".

45 seconds. That is roughly how long you wait at a Berlin pedestrian light before crossing on red anyway.

In fairness, this city knows its strengths. Berlin does clubs where the queue lasts longer than the night. Berlin does demos, späti philosophy and rents that clear the bar more athletically than any high jumper. What Berlin does not do: big projects on time, on budget and without a committee of inquiry.

What happens to the money now

Opponents argue that the billions are needed more urgently elsewhere. Schools. Housing. Public transport that runs even when it snows, strikes or happens to be Tuesday. That sounds unspectacular, but it would be a discipline in which Berlin could set world records, if it wanted to.

The DOSB president paid Berlin respect for withdrawing, a "great sign of fairness". The capital has not received that much praise in a long time. Maybe that is the real lesson: sometimes the best thing you can do for a competition is to leave it to others and, in the meantime, fix the toilets at Alexanderplatz.

We congratulate Munich and Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr in advance. And Berlin? Remains what it is: the unofficial capital of almost winning.