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Half-life of the Olympics
Variety reports this morning that the opening of the 2022 Games was down 43% compared to four-years ago. The opening of the Tokyo Summer games last year was down 40% over Rio in 2016. At this rate the 2028 Games will be getting pummeled by standard-def reruns of The Golden Girls. (That will set up one of those DirecTV Stream ads rather nicely: Bea Arthur. Transgendered Weight Lifter. Bea Arthur. Transgendered Weight Lifter. Bea Arthur. Transgendered Weight Lifter…)
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I feel bad for the athletes. They work their whole lives for this.
But the Olympics itself is dirty. I feel bad watching it. It’s a political power play. And it has been for a long time.
Everyone points to the ’36 Games and calls them the “Nazi Olympics.” But few take into consideration that the IOC awarded Germany the games in April of 1931, two-years before Hitler came to power. It was supposed to be an olive branch to a defeated nation from the Great War.
Some have written that Hitler didn’t even want the games until Goebbels convinced him of the propaganda value. Xi didn’t have to be convinced.
I am upset that we did not medal in curling, but that’s about it.
The bloom is off of the Olympics rose for me. I was indifferent about Barcelona and my interest has been trending down ever since. The “human interest” pieces became less interesting. And longer.
We can hope.
I’ve seen some talk, as the venues rarely break even financially, of establishing a permanent home for the Olympics. That way facilities can be reused instead of a lot of one-offs being built.
The Olympics held some magic growing up. I don’t know when I last watched much of them. Maybe Calgary.
I remember watching some Olympic games in Los Angeles that were on teevee.
The only curling that interests me is the 12 oz kind.
I am not a sports person. I do however like a spectacle, so Olympic opening and closing ceremonies can attract me. But perhaps oddly, it was the British opening ceremony (2012?) that turned me off of Olympic ceremonies completely. The opening ceremony spectacle was so overtly political propaganda (though I did appreciate the Queen’s participation in the 007 bit), and I have assumed every one since has been nothing more than political propaganda . So I have no interest.
I propose Greece as the permanent location.
That would be tricky for the Winter Olympics.
But for the Summer Olympics, I agree with you. That would be very cool. But that’s a lot of people to pack into Greece every 4 years…
But what would happen to the corruption and payoffs that come from choosing a new site for each Olympiad? There are people for whom that is their livelihood. Don’t we want to keep them off the streets?
Put the winter olympics in Dubai. 130 degree heat and ski slopes they already have.
The pollution would be pretty rough on the athletes.
Greece can’t clean the air by putting the entire population on lockdown like China can.
Looks like an emblematic Canadian protester.
It’s all about “Our athletes won more medals, so we’re a better country than you. Ptui!”
Curling was the last Winter Olympics sport I ever watched – in 2018, precisely because it is a sport that can be performed at world class level while holding a beer and a cigarette.
I’ll watch none of the Winter Olympics, even though I used to enjoy all of it. Dianne Holum. Ard Schenk.
Guam!! (Winter Olympics would be a chore.)
No–the island would tip over if you loaded all that equipment and people.
Think of the excitement of the unexpected water sports.
Ex-Marine Bea Arthur!
I had to look that up.
It’s hard to drum up nationalistic pride for something as unimportant as the Olympics when the government and media is at war against its own people on multiple fronts.
I’m much more likely to show up on the side of the road to wave a flag for the trucker convoy passing in protest of tyrannical government than I am to root for a twenty-two year old double vaxxed and masked speed skater who doesn’t understand his country is turning communist.
The Olympics were fine when the world wasn’t in flames. Now it’s just a circus purporting to distract from the worldwide battles while unwittingly serving as prime example of one of them.
And go back to all the athletes being nude!
You really want to see those curlers naked?
The high point was Bruce Jenner winning the Decathlon. It has all been downhill since then.
I’ve never watched the men’s events anyway.