premise: Things got under way around 1:30 p.m., after Nick Goddard, who is 26 and lost his job as a computer programmer last month, showed up with a few friends. Mr. Goddard said he had hatched the idea for the Unemployment Olympics because he yearned for the chance to "battle all the unemployed people for stuff." "It's also not a bad time to be unemployed," said Mr. Goddard, who is from Rochester Hills, Mich., and lives in the East Village. "There is no stigma associated with it now."
hypothesis: The Unemployment Olympics took place in the East Village.