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Why I Hate the Olympics
I love sports. But I hate the Olympics.
Don’t get me wrong, I love watching the events (well, not ice dancing or luge; halfpipe is sort of interesting though). I love the ancient Greek idea of sporting contests and human excellence. And as a patriot, I love watching the United States vanquish our rivals. I still remember watching the Lake Placid victory over the evil empire’s hockey team in 1980.
But I don’t like the way the modern olympics play out. They are an enormous waste of money, often used for the purposes of glorifying the host country’s government. The Sochi and Beijing olympics, like the Berlin olympics before them, serve to defend the ideology of authoritarian regimes.
In addition, the Olympics require nations to funnel billions of dollars to build stadiums that serve little purpose for their people after the show is over. What goes on in China’s Bird’s Nest stadium these days? Is it a good place to escape the air pollution in Beijing?
I also think the ideology of the Olympics is naive and silly. If the speeches of Olympic leaders are any guide, people in the “Olympics movement” think that they somehow help bring peace to the world. Tell that to the ancient Greeks, who may have paused their wars to hold the Olympics, but then went right on killing each other afterwards. There is no Victor Davis Hanson book on how the Olympics stopped the Peloponnesian War — because they didn’t.
How exactly does watching sporting events and fielding national teams convince nations to put aside the defense of their security and the pursuit of their interests? If any American leader ever allowed the Olympic spirit to change his calculus on how best to defend the nation and achieve our foreign policy goals, we’d be justified in running him out of his office.
It’s a lot of wasted money, a lot of authoritarian self-congratulation, and a lot of worthless bravado. Basically, the Olympics are the United Nations with a medal platform.
While we’re at it, can we talk about the silliness of some of the sports? Can someone explain why the combination of skiing and shooting is an Olympic event? Apart from giving Norway a shot of self-esteem? To be clear, I am all for shooting guns while speeding around on two pieces of wood in the forest — but an international sport on par with the 100-meter dash? There’s a reason we don’t watch these things more than once every four years.
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And it’s entirely a creation of TV now. Geared to women. The endless cliched human interest bios of the athletes. Single parent, g’pa died just last week, sisters and brothers with life-threatening whatever. It’s so cloying and manipulative. I agree with Woo entirely.
I enjoy the Olympic sports – which of course are not covered live because it’s 2014 and nobody can check results on the internet. NBC’s coverage of the Olympics is devastatingly true to form vis a vis the Peacock network’s political coverage. Pre-established media narratives haphazardly masking a left-wing agenda, wrapped in a preening bow of a diseased Bob Costas.
I agree. I watched my first live biathlon about 11 years ago and was just amazed. The leader was a machine who ran the course with extreme power. When it came to shooting, he just skied up, threw the rifle around, 10 cracks later he was skiing away. If I hadn’t moved out of Montana a month later I would have bought skies and a rifle.
Edited 45 minutes ago
You are also forgetting that all efforts of personal sacrafice and success must be duly taxed. In short, “You did not build that”.
To combat the disfunction of the modern Olympics, I would give the franchise to Greece. Build and maintain a permanent venue, spread the various events out so each is on a different four-year cycle. The continuous tourism and ongoing construction would allow them to pay back Germany to some extent. And Olympics! Greece! Tradition!
Sure, the government will screw it up, but maybe it can limit the damage they do in other areas. And if it works, maybe we can import the idea to the US. Limited government would mean managing all sports leagues. A stadium in every Congressional District ….
I’d like to see the pre-game show from the ESPN football crew, only doing analysis of the Olympic sports.
Can you imagine Ditka opining on ice dancing? Or an Olympic C’mon Man?
Devastating. And gorgeous. ·3 hours ago
Thinking it over, I also agree with this, but here’s the thing. The problem with the United Nations is that it wants to exercise political and moral authority, which is ridiculous. If the UN made no pretense of being anything but an international goodwill-generating soiree, I probably wouldn’t mind it much. And isn’t that pretty much what we get with the Olympics?
The Olympics is a UN dedicated entirely to settling rivalries and providing entertainment. Hmm. Actually, that sounds sort of awesome.
That all being said, the hockey is phenomenal. I really look forward to it every four years. It is like the all-star game in tournament form and with something at stake. The game is better on the big ice.
My interest in the Olympics pretty much passed when Jim McKay did. Anymore it’s poor coverage of sports you rarely see outside of the games.
The IOC is a private body. That governments let themselves get sucked into spending vast amounts on infrastructure and passing Olympic-specific laws is their own fault.
That the IOC is the or a major source of funding for many sports says something about the relative value of the brand of those sports versus the Olympics.
The US public has been mightily disserved by NBC’s soap opera coverage. But NBC, a private company, is willing to pay more to the IOC, a private organization, for the broadcast rights decade after decade.
Biathlon rocks, and harkens back to the source of many of the serious winter sports, military training.
What? You mean yawl didn’t enjoy the NHS show in London (I mean, the opening ceremonies)?
Or the Tribute to Communism last week?
We’ve gone from Franz Klammer throwing himself down a mountain in 1976 to self-satisfied Yuppies who mangle the English language and do tricks that in the real world would be called vandalism or disorderly conduct in 2014.
And a bah humbug to you to. ;)
Biathlon is actually an interesting sport: hunting on skis goes back thousands of years, and the traditional form of it is still practiced in the Altai mountains in China. So from one perspective it’s got more cred than the halfpipe, for instance.
But you’re right, there are lots of disturbing things about the Olympics, mostly the corruption.
But I watch it with my family, and we enjoy the positive aspects. They do expose us to the human side of each other, and while NBC focuses too much on American athletes and former champions, they have had a number of nice biopics on non-American athletes. The story about Tina Maze, who’s a national hero in Slovenia, apparently, was terrific (she’s the girl who tied for first place in the downhill race).
The modern olympics were started with a noble goal, and I think they achieve it to some large degree. Like all human activities, though, they don’t do it perfectly. But that is life.
And watching the finish in ski jumping was phenomenal: everyone knew the Polish skier had won (he went last), but the two other finishers respectfully waited for the official result. Then they picked him up, and carried him around like a champion. Neither of them was Polish. It was Poland’s first medal since 1972.
And watching the coaches congratulate each other on their skiers’ jumps was terrific.
That was the Olympics at its best: reminding us how much we have in common, and how, if we try, we can live together.
“My interest in the Olympics pretty much passed when Jim McKay did.”
He was terrific. Costas is painful to watch…
Right on! I’m sorry NBC, you suck. Too touchy, filly for me.
More, I think having professionals in these things is wrong. The USA doesn’t need to send pro’s, who cares what other countries do. Why do I want to see sports with athletes that I see on TV throughout the year? Let the amateurs have their day.
Also, I can’t stand the focus on sports we see routinely on TV, like ice skating or basketball. Bring on the obscure, rare sports and let them have their day too. I love watching wrestling and judo, but they only telecast what 3 minutes—if an American is in the Medal rounds—of these sports.
Biathlon rocks, and harkens back to the source of many of the serious winter sports, military training. ·6 hours ago
I love the biathlon as well, and it is essentially basic training for winter troops: Mobility and firepower. The Finns took it to the Russians in the Winter War of of ’39-’40 because they were better biathletes.
Kind of shoots a hole (pun intended) in the whole “Olympics are about peace” meme, however.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Finn_ski_troops.jpg ·February 14, 2014 at 4:57am
Edited on February 14, 2014 at 5:13am
Finland lost that war though.
I’m a little perplexed by all this hate though. Unlike war [where we objectively win but our enemies can just deny it] and diplomacy [where in the UN we have to pretend Syria is on the same moral plane as us], there are rules in sports.
Aside from the sports with judges, the US can just dominate because we’re just better than everyone else at so many things. There’s no casuistry. It all makes sense and it’s fair.
In addition, the Olympics require nations to funnel billions of dollars to build stadiums that serve little purpose for their people after the show is over. What goes on in China’s Bird’s Nest stadium these days? Is it a good place to escape the air pollution in Beijing?
I always think of this, too. It would make far more sense to pick a couple of permanent locations and re-use them again and again. I hate that taxpayers are forced to pay at least partially for stadiums for the MLB and NFL. At least those get used several times a year for a couple decades, before the team decides they need something newer and fancier. These Olympic facilities are used for their intended purpose for a couple of weeks. It’s a disgraceful waste of money.
People, we are overthinking this one! If I am able to ignore the obnoxious Scott Hamilton screaming “He/She nailed it!” after every performance in the skating competitions, then the rest of you can learn to tune out the media as well.
1) I don’t care for any events that are scored by judges, especially Olympic judges. In addition to the inevitable vagaries of subjectivity, they have already demonstrated their corruptibility.
2) Bob Costas-enough said.
The US of A hockey team just defeated the evil Soviet Russian Federation in a shoot out. That is why I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!
Damn right! (And I love that you did not ignore Putin’s KGB background.)