http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/08/us.olympic.torch/index.html?section=cnn_latest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympics
The recent tensions in San Francisco got a lot of media attention (at least no pro-Tibet protester snatched the torch from a wheelchair-bound Chinese this time, like in Paris: http://forums.thuyngaonline.com/tm.aspx?m=755171&mpage=1&key=򸘸), and many a politician/observer remarked that we should put the politics aside and focus on the "spirit" of the Olympics instead. Yeah right. And what exactly is the spirit of the Olympics? Fair competition, unity, and goodwill? Athletes come first and not national rivalries? I have difficulty seeing it.
Excerpts from the official Olympic Charter:
Article 2: The mission of the IOC is to promote Olympism throughout the world and to lead the Olympic Movement. This includes upholding ethics in sports, encouraging participation in sports, ensuring the Olympic Games take place on a regular schedule, protecting the Olympic Movement, and encouraging and supporting the development of sport.
Article 6: The Olympic Games are competitions between athletes in individual or team events and not between countries.
I enjoy athletics as much or more than the next fellow, but of course the world would be a better place if people invested half the effort they devote to sport towards fighting global crises like poverty, war, disease, and climate change. Can you imagine how much better America would be if children didn’t go to soccer/baseball practice for seven hours a week (hey parents, you’re kid is NEVER going to make it to the pros, so get real!) and studied, volunteered, or did chores instead? Now I am all for friendly athletic competition and some professional sport for mass media consumption (NOT stupid golf, NASCAR, and a 160-game baseball season!). Sport can be entertaining, inspiring, and edifying, but let’s get a grip.
Please, there is no way that an exclusive, commercialized sporting gala every two years will encourage the squabbling, fighting nations of the world to magically resolve their differences. In fact, history has shown that the Olympics can become a new medium for projecting conflict among peoples. Or at best, it’s like Christmas where people in good cheer finally remember to be kind to their fellow humans, hopefully, for one month out of the year. Then with the after-holiday sales, they go back to their usual jerk selves.
Sure the modern Olympics were meant to bring nations and athletes together in the common goal of sport excellence. But to pay homage to the ancient games, we engage in athletic events that were developed millennia ago to hone MILITARY skills, like running and jumping (to kill your enemy or avoid being killed), throwing spears/heavy rocks (to kill your enemy), and wrestling (to kill your enemy). Factoid: did you know that tug-of-war used to be an event until 1924? Now that would be awesome to see! Are the hammer throw and pommel horse even relevant to athletics and modern life anymore? Why are softball, synchronized swimming, handball, fencing, cycling, water polo, table tennis, badminton, sailing, equestrian, and snowboarding (plus most of the other winter sports) even included, when less than 5% of the world's population even knows how to play (much less can afford to participate)? And let’s not forget the grand-daddy misfit of them all: CURLING. How does that bring everyone together? It just brings RICH competitors together to show up one another. And I wonder if they really do it for national pride and the good of the sport, or for personal gain from the lucrative endorsements, ego, and publicity if they win. Many well-paid pro athletes avoid the Olympics, because it takes time from their pro careers and they may get injured during competition.
And what has the Olympics brought us in recent memory? The sporting achievements have been overshadowed by plenty of controversies. Everyone and their mother is doping and lying about it, even gold medalists and East German chicks with mustaches and sex change operations. But at least the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) tries to clamp down, unlike American baseball, though we’ll never know how successful they are. For every Marion Jones and Ben Johnson who got caught, shamed, and stripped of their titles, I wonder how many got away with it.
Hostile nations boycott each other’s games. The Mormons bribed the IOC in order to get the winter games in Salt Lake City (a later internal IOC, International Olympic Committee, investigation caused 4 to resign and 6 to be expelled), then refused to let the guests enjoy booze freely! The French and Russians can't agree on anything in the UN Security Council (except opposing America's invasion of Iraq!), but they secretly colluded to swap figure skating scores. White trash Tonya Harding (representing her country with true colors!) had her thug friend injure a fellow American skater teammate. Another white trash skier Bode Miller got drunk and partied in Italy instead of winning medals for his country (and because of it, he got more endorsement deals and media coverage than all the other straight and narrow skiers). In a real-life “Tortoise and the Hare” story, US snowboarder L Jacobellis was far in the lead, so she decided to showboat and pull a stunt, but she fell and it cost her and her nation a gold. A bomb went off at the Atlanta games, and the authorities/media blamed the wrong guy, a security guard named Richard Jewell, who actually SAVED many bystanders from harm. To cover their asses, they then proceeded to destroy his credibility and ruin his life (he died before the age of 50, probably from stress and grief). The list goes on and on, and I’m sure that the Beijing games will have their fair share of controversy/embarrassment. And before our time, terrorists slaughtered innocent Israeli athletes, which did nothing towards advancing their agenda.
Even before the games start, I know for a fact that Russia, China, the US, France, and maybe Germany/Australia/Italy will be at the high end of the medal count. Their training budgets dwarf the budgets of all of participating African or Latin American nations combined. Except for Sydney, all of the games have taken place in the Northern Hemisphere, usually in wealthy European and North American cities. In contrast, the World Cup has taken place in Latin America multiple times, and will soon be held in the African continent for the first time.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/spo_oly_med_gol_syd_200_percap-gold-sydney-...
Here’s a funny list: the most medals per capita from the Sydney games. So by this count, Bahamas is awesome and China/America actually suck! Attached is a study by researchers at Dartmouth and UC Berkeley about population and wealth as national predictors of Olympic success. As one would expect, they conclude that total GDP is a strong predictor of winning medals, and hosting the games nets you 2% additional medals. So of course many poor nations are too busy with conflicts, feeding the poor, combating disease, and trying to modernize their economies to invest much in Olympic training. But what does that tell us about the Soviet Union/Russia, China, and America’s social priorities if we invest millions in training a few athletes, while schools, hospitals, social services, and economic infrastructure are suffering?
To me, the best moments of the Olympics have been political ones actually. Jesse Owens showed up the “master race”, and scowling Hitler had to watch him win medals over his German competitors. Actually Owens was such a class act that German athlete Lutz Long defied national propaganda and gave him training help (they became lifelong friends too). Medalists Smith and Carlos raised the "Black Power" gloved fist in support of the civil rights struggle back home. What did the IOC and USOC do in response? They sent those runners home, so the entire US track team wouldn’t be disqualified. I didn’t know the IOC had rules against accessorizing, and doesn’t the spirit of Olympism include civil rights and equality? And since 2000, North and South Korean teams decided to compete as one unit, even though the North athletes got clobbered due to antiquated equipment and deficient training versus richer nations. They marched together in the opening ceremonies under a flag showing a map of the Korean peninsula, not either nation’s flag. But the North boycotted the 2002 Salt Lake games to protest the host nation.
But the moment in my lifetime that I will always remember was Parkinson’s-hobbled and former gold medalist Muhammad Ali lighting the opening torch in Atlanta. He represented his country with dignity, even if his country demonized him for his politics and religion (that wasn’t even extreme compared to some Neocons and Evangelicals today), tried to draft him into an unjust war he didn’t agree with, and stripped him of his money (legal fees to take his case all the way to the Supreme Court, where he finally was vindicated) and boxing titles as punishment for his lack of cooperation. Ali (né Cassius Clay) would have been just another n----r in the South if he didn’t have the amazing ability to punch people and avoid getting punched. Actually as a youth, he threw his Olympic medal in a river after being rejected at a “whites only” establishment, and then getting into a fight with a white gang (in Atlanta they gave him an honorary medal to compensate). His boxing career was a mixed blessing that brought him wealth, celebrity, but also a lot of personal turmoil and may have contributed to his Parkinson’s.
As we all know, the Olympics are all about MONEY now. Billions of dollars will change hands just because of a few people running, swimming, and throwing a ball around. The selection of venues can literally make or break a city’s economy. Allegations of bribery are almost as numerous as allegations of drug use. Anything to win; if you’re not cheating, then you’re not hungry enough (and besides, your competitors are!). The IOC has become a wealthy and elitist “good ol’ boys club”, and they are famously hard-assed for suing anyone who uses OlympicsTM trademarks or content without their permission and paying royalties. Does that foster goodwill and unity among nations? And companies will pay top dollar for sponsorship rights, mass marketing, and media exposure. How can McDonald’s claim to be an official sponsor of the games when their unhealthy products are shunned by athletes worldwide and contribute to obesity? Don’t get me started on the media coverage. Now we have to pay $100 or more for satellite TV coverage to actually see the events and athletes we care about? Otherwise we’re at the mercy of NBC and Bob Costas droning on and on about stupid “human interest” pieces about Apollo Anton Ono and Michael Phelps. Figure skating and gymnastics get the most coverage to capture the female audience (so clothing, food, handbag, and cosmetics companies will fork over big bucks for advertising time!). Beach volleyball got huge exposure at the recent Athens games, even though very few Americans play it or even know the game. Oops, I should clarify that WOMEN’S BV got the coverage, with their skimpy two-pieces and all.
The sad part is I’ll still probably watch a little, at least to see Team USA hopefully recapture the men’s basketball gold in a sport that we invented!
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