Posted on 05/17/2004 9:04:27 PM PDT by Hildy
The Olympic Movement is constipated.
The Games of Summer have become a megaton gorilla, too difficult to handle, feed and understand, too unwieldy, far too unpredictable, dangerous and expensive to keep, and far, far too tainted by advancements in chemistry.
And so? Unnecessary. Nice knowing you, ring boys.
If the Olympics go away, the world will go on, and the hypocritical purists who have permanently stained what once was sportdom's last chapel will go away, too.
The idealistic idea of the Games has been ravaged by time, greed, money, power, terror, corruption, politics and drugs.
The Games are drugged out of control, with no hope of getting clean, Timothy Leary with a shot put in his hands. But also without regret, because a gold medal means glory and endorsements and it somehow has a sweet odor to it to those who cannot smell.
So what say we cut the rings?
The Games could have self-destructed after the disaster that was Munich and the flop that was Moscow. But the International Olympic Committee, with the vision of a bat and the common sense of a slug, was shown by capitalist Peter Ueberroth that even nincompoops could make money from Olympics – if all they want to do is make money.
The IOC – blockheads leading the blockheads – would like us to believe all is well, because the foul institution thrives on dough, which, of course, has led to corruption. But what's happened to the event among all events has gone far beyond overcommercialization.
The Olympic Games no longer serve the purpose for which they were intended, which had something to do with purity of sport and unification of nations. Fine for 19th century thinkers, but it now seems laughable to even the gullible, which we are.
We watch. We watch – every four years, we do, because of that Olympic tag. We get all warm, fuzzy and jingoistic. But the Red Menace is gone. And with it has gone the Olympic flame, because the United States pays the freight, the United States is what matters, and we have no one to really hate athletically, although so many hate us internationally.
We're about out of people to root against. So our drugged-out sprinter beats France's drugged-out sprinter. Are we supposed to kneel and read the Constitution?
America drives the Olympics because it supplies the dough. Time for the supply to run out.
The IOC, a yacht of fools, made the incredible mistake of slamming into a highly visible iceberg when it awarded the 2004 Games to Athens. What could these numbskulls have been thinking? Athens? In 2004? Are you kidding me?
A few weeks ago, three bombs were exploded near an Athens police station, although the crack Greek gendarmes were made aware of the threat ahead of time. They guess that around $1 billion will be spent on Olympic security.
For what? Could this money not be spent on something more serious than running and jumping after visiting the pharmacy? Like feeding and clothing the poor? Is everyone in Greece Aristotle Onassis? Don't think so.
They could spend $10 billion. It won't matter. Terrorism is effective because of the thought of it. Terrorism is the boy who cried wolf. It needs no physical presence to work, which is why it works.
The United States has decided to send its athletes to Greece this August, and it has no choice. We have flexed our military muscle near that part of the world. We have done right and wrong. We can't back out now. The world has nowhere else to look for a spine.
Maybe Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady won't go. Many athletes may be forced to remain home through urinalysis. But we will go. Barring a Greek calamity before August, we can't sit home and knit.
Athens probably wouldn't be ready for the 2012 Games. Many venues aren't near completion, and damn the historical element. Think, people. The glory that was Greece was of another day, before blood doping, steroids and Bin Laden.
Olympics are a logistical nightmare when cities think they know what they're doing, and most of them don't.
What is to be gained by hosting the Olympics? Can we honestly say L.A. is better after 1984? Is Seoul? Barcelona? Atlanta? Sydney?
So what if the Athens Olympics go off without a hitch? So the ring-bearers will gloat and get a 20-year reprieve on room service in the finest hotels and the best cigars.
Quick. Who won the 400-meter medley in Sydney?
Worst of all, the Summer Olympics, especially, have become artificially enhanced. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is ready to ban some top (unidentified) track and field athletes from the Games. The agency claims to have overwhelming evidence of drug use from a federal investigation into the BALCO Laboratories scandal.
Marion Jones, America's top female sprinter, is being linked to some of this stuff and says she will sue the agency if barred from Athens. She should thank it.
As much as I have loved track all my life, it's tough to look at an event now without asking: "Are they juiced?" The swimming cheats from Eastern Bloc countries that dominated chlorinated water as Britannia once ruled the waves now need life jackets.
But can we wash our hands enough to get them clean?
I can't watch dressage without wondering about the horse.
Up next as Summer Games host is Beijing. Forget about it. Tell the IOCers: Find a real job. Inform the Chinese: Feed your children. Well.
"The idealistic idea of the Games has been ravaged by time, greed, money, power, terror, corruption, politics and drugs."
TRUE. And, this olympics will see some serious terrorism I'm afraid; possibly disrupting the entire games.
The only thing good about the Olympics was the national pride. With American athletes being warned not to wave the U.S. flag I say it has now outlived its usefulness.
bttt
I am sure that the Darwin folks are printing up a large quantity of Awards for anyone stupid enough to go to Athens.
Plus, the insufferable arrogance of the Olympic "movement" makes the whole spectacle an unintended parody of itself.
guess I should have actually read the article before repeating the author's points.
Sometimes, things have to be said twice. Frankly, I liked how you put it into words. :)
lol
You said it. And I used to love the Winter Games until it started to look more like the Winter X-Games.
San Diego can only afford one sports columnist?
I agree. BTTT
Newsmax article on the Olympics
Now I agree with him. The Olympics are history.
morning bump
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