"Shut them down!"
Posted on 01/26/2022 5:55:49 AM PST by Kaslin
The “modern” Olympic Games are no longer “Olympic.” They have, in recent decades, become as much about politics and money as about individual athletic excellence. It is time to either change them dramatically or just end them altogether.
The 1968 “Black Power” fists by two American athletes as they stood on the dais while our national anthem was played, opened to door to use of the Olympic venue for making controversial political statements. The door was thrown wide open a dozen years later when, in 1980, the United States led a 66-nation boycott of the Summer Games because the Carter Administration was upset with the Soviet Union’s military incursions in Afghanistan. (The predecessor 1976 games suffered a smaller, but still significant, boycott for other, unrelated political reasons.)
It’s been largely downhill since then.
Perhaps it should not be shocking that the Olympics have gone the way of sports generally. The same alliance of money and politics that has made U.S. professional sports increasingly difficult to watch, is endemic to the games and its governing body, the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Television revenue is the fuel for modern Olympics, just as steroid abuse appears to fuel the bodies of many of its athletes.
The few weeks of each summer or winter competition have become so jam-packed with events as to make it nearly impossible to focus on the traditional “Olympic” events on which the Games historically were based. Regularly adding events like skateboarding may bring in a few younger viewers, but at the cost of further diluting the lasting significance of the Games.
The packed schedule makes coverage of events akin to riding in bumper cars, lurching from one stage to the next before the viewer knows what is taking place in the actual arena.
There is barely an effort made by U.S. networks to cover teams from other countries, which used to be one of the more interesting aspects of tuning in to the coverage. Were the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” hockey match between the underdog Americans and the highly favored Soviet team played today, it would likely be shown only as highlights cut-in to live coverage of the snowboard “half pipe.”
Outside of the arena, it is far worse. Countries already struggling economically are routinely scammed into picking up the tab for hosting the Olympics, with promises of tourism and long-term financial return that rarely, if ever materialize. And, when the games predictably come to illiberal countries like Russia and China, the latter of which is hosting this year’s Winter Games, the Olympics serve primarily as an open mic for their state propaganda.
For the sake of the future of the Games and the athletes, it is time to take the “games” out of the Olympics with a complete overhaul.
A good start would be to make Greece and Switzerland the permanent homes for the Summer and Winter Games, respectively. All participating nations would cover the costs of maintaining permanent facilities, and thereby remove much of the financial burden nations now assume in building new facilities every two years. An added bonus is that removing the “selection” process from the Games will knock the IOC’s ego down a few pegs.
Were Greece and Switzerland to agree to such an endeavor, it would remove much of the political gamesmanship that now so deeply permeates the Games. Moreover, both countries are, in general, liberal societies without track records of human rights abuse, civil liberties violations, and anti-Western governments – factors that have become recurring excuses for athletes and participating nations to further politicize the Games.
Significantly paring-back the number of competitions to those involving true athletic ability as opposed to the latest “athletic” fad, and requiring that athletes be allowed to compete only with others of their same “birth sex,” needs also to be part of these reforms.
If the IOC and its top supporting nations do not soon take corrective action in saving the games from being swallowed up by the same forces that have poisoned professional sports generally, the Olympics risk becoming just another narcissistic, over-commercialized and over-politicized event easy to ignore, on par with the NFL or the Oscars.
I usually enjoy watching the Olympics but I do not plan to do so this year. Either there is a deadly pandemic going on in this world and there is not. The Propaganda media and the New World order oligarchs send out very confusing messages.
Yes…wokism and political virtue signaling have destroyed all sports…
Go back to true amateurs who LOVE their country.
I’m not sure that I quite agree with the authors idea of only TWO sites, but the ridiculously wasteful city selections around the world really does have to stop.
The only thing more depressing than the images of rotting Olympic venues rotting in seas of debt, is the knowledge that these are won with bribes and hookers more than anything else.
Perhaps four different summer and winter venues - at least have a set number in a set rotation. The creepy IOC pervs would have to go find some other way to fleece the process, but that’s their problem.
I agree that permanent sites should be established.
In off years they could be used for tourism and training.
As someone posted it is a sad sight to see facilities costing billions of dollars used once and then left to decay.
I mostly agree with the author except for the notion that struggling countries are scammed into hosting. The glaring pitfalls of being a host are well known, and no one puts a gun to their heads
The US would then get accredited for all the foreign athletes who train at US colleges, and smaller nations would get some medals for their coaching abilities, e.g. Romanian gymnastic coaches.
"Shut them down!"
Bob Barr-love that man.
I was in England for the 1976? Winter Olympics and remember the ski jumping competition. The BBC showed the best jump from the best English jumper and said, "That puts him into 71st place". Sigh.
Jimmy Carter did the right thing banning US athletes participating in the USSR. Now it’s Russia. It was then that Greece being permanent host seemed a good idea. Barr is just regurgitating more new reasons. 1980 was 40+ years ago. It will take another 40 to become serious. We’ll all be gone.
The only other city that was in the running to host the Winter Games awarded to Beijing was Almaty in Kazakhstan. Imagine holding the games in Almaty in the middle of a quasi-civil war with thousands of Ivans out and about.
Several European cities at first put in bids to host the 2022 Games but the citizens when seeing the price tag said no.
I don’t know about the Winter Olympics, but for the Summer you can download the app that lets you watch any competition you wanted. I watch both mountain biking comps plus the triathlons and the mixed competition and they were compelling.
I watched some of the sailing events, but they weren’t what I would consider compelling.
“Greece and Switzerland”? How utterly racist! Lilly white Euro-centric cultural dominance!
I suggest Mozambique and....where is a cold place with lots of snow and POCs? Greenland?
NBC is NOT sending any ‘journalists’ to games.
Not clear who will do the ‘announcing’ of the events,.
I think it’s been a while since a struggling country put in a bid.
I’m guessing the announcers will do their calls off the TV like they did for Korean baseball.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.