*sigh* What is it about the Olympics? I don't get sports in general, but the Olympics fever that's overtaking my coworkers is starting to really annoy me.
The whole idea is supposed to be peace, brotherhood and understanding. Exactly how is competition between countries supposed to promote peace, brotherhood and understanding? Isn't it a bit self-defeating to promote peace through setting up a situation where people are there to prove that they are better than everybody else at something? How does it promote brotherhood (or sisterhood, or siblinghood, for those of you who are going to play semantics games) when you create an "us versus them" arena for the whole world to play in? What is it that people are coming away with an understanding of?
The Olympics are merely another political platform for those countries that can afford to use it as such. Yes, go ahead and point fingers at the Americans, with their silly multi-million dollar basketball amateurs and their countrymen's absurd chants of "U - S - A ! U - S - A!" But we aren't the only offenders, nor the first ones. Look at the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany if you want to see a country using the games for its own purposes. Or take note of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, which regarded every medal won by its citizens as proof that it was a rising power in the world. How many different countries have boycotted the Olympics to make some political statement or another? Even the French baron who created the modern Olympic games did so because he wanted a platform for French athletes to show off their superiority. As long as Olympians compete for their countries instead of for themselves, the Olympics will always be a political arena.
As for the "code of amateur participation" employed by the Olympics... here's an interesting tidbit for you. The original Greek Olympians were "professional" athletes. Yes, all they took home with them if they won at a game was a laurel on their heads, but once home they were set for life. They were supported by their community and never had to work after that. I've read that the Greek medical schools even had scholarships used to endow their athletes with an income while they trained.
Our current code of "amateurs only" comes, according to David Wallechinsky (an Olympic historian) from "upper class English to stop the working class from being able to compete against them because if you couldnât afford to--if you werenât a rich person, then you had to take time off from your training to work, or you had to become a professional, and, thus, not allowed to be in the Olympics."[from a 1996 interview with Jim Lehrer]
While we're at it, what's the point of being the person who skis the fastest downhill, who skates the most accurate figure 8, or who fires his gun most accurately while on cross-country skis? Why does the media, the advertising corporations, the White House, the masses fete these athletes? What skill have they acquired that will make life better for humanity? I don't deny exercise is good, necessary, and even noble, but to devote your life to being the best luger is hedonism taken to extremes. You've done nothing for the world, for your community, or your family. All you've done is spent a lot of time going down hill. I'm a big proponent of "be all that you can be", but I am not a proponent of turning it into a multi-billion dollar industry that celebrates what can be seen as a very selfish and self-serving endeavor.
So, flying in the face of politically correct posturing, I see the Olympics as a rather hypocritical and very political sideshow. You want to make it real? Strip the athletes of any country-of-origin identification. Have them compete against each other as individuals. Let them be professionals; if they're good enough to compete then they ought to be able to make money at doing it while they train. Maybe they can even teach, and do a little good for others while pursuing perfection for themselves.
Make all those changes and I still won't watch the Olympics, because I still don't get sports. But it'll take the wind out of my sails and I'll stop griping for a while.