A majority of Daily Mail readers want to scrap the Olympics after Beijing; I know, but its on their website and everything - HERE. I imagine a majority of Olympians want to scrap the Daily Mail but I doubt the IOC will ever get around to running a poll on their website. Most people don’t have a problem with the Olympics as a sporting event. The objectionable part is the endless talk of how they are a ‘global celebration’ and ‘bring people together.’ There is even a pyramid on www.olympic.org explaining how we are all part of the Olympic movement. Needless to say the sponsors are pretty near the top.
I think the reason the Olympics attract such controversy and cynicism is because we have come to expect too much from a 2 week sporting event. The Olympics only feature in the news when protesters are trying to extinguish the torch, Chinese officials are threatening to deal with protesters who attempt to interfere with the torch when it goes near Tibet or when the budget for London 2012 overruns. The news coverage is so far removed from a sporting event that we have lost site of what the games is all about. Until the Olympics becomes about sport again the public’s cynicism will continue to grow.
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“The news coverage is so far removed from a sporting event that we have lost site of what the games is all about”. Oh, and what are the Games all about, exactly? This much-vaunted Olympic spirit? As far as I can see this means people jumping a bit higher than a few other jumpers, or running a wee bit faster, or throwing a stick, or whatever. I think the massed ranks of people interested in jumping, running and throwing sticks – about two dozen of them, probably – could get on with it without requiring a totalitarian regime to bring a bunch of thugs to London to showcase their Games with the aid of a bunch of Useful Idiots clutching at their brand symbol, sorry, torch. For the first time in my life I think I’m with the Daily Mail. Except I’d get rid of the whole nonsense before Beijing, not after.