Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Kansas City
Posts: 7504

Three Arguments Towards Abolishing The Olympics

This week's New Republic had a good idea. I'm gonna add to it and open it up to the board for arguin' about.

The argument is that the Olympics should be entirely destroyed.

Here are my supporting rationales some of them borrowed from the folks at TNR:

1. The entire rationale behind the competition is flawed. The stated purpose of the so-called "Olympic Movement" is to create a two-week period every four years when sports are more important than anything else and we bring the world together to celebrate them.

Sports are ALREADY too important to too many people. High schools fire good teachers in order to boost the salary of the football coach, and neglect teaching in favor of supporting the school's athletic teams. Young people ignore academic preparation in favor of an illusory dream that they could one day play NFL football or NBA basketball. Athletes are SO lionized that many consider themselves to be above the law and the dictates of normal morality. Athletes should be given LESS attention, not more, and abolishing the Olympics is a step in the right direction.

2. The International Olympic Committee is among the most corrupt organizations on the face of the planet. Under Juan Antonio Samaranch, the IOC has turned the competition over hosting the Olympics into an insane festival of bribery in which competing cities are openly expected to shower the IOC voters with lavish gifts. Whenever anyone is caught trying to "bribe" the committee, the blame is placed on the host city. It's pathetic. It's nothing more than a gravy train for a bunch of sports bureaucrats and their families. These people should be shoveling dung for a living.

3. The playing field is skewed. The Olympics does not determine who the best athletes in the world are. It determines who has the best-financed sports machine and the most unbalanced priorities. In the case of the USA, it demonstrates that we can spend a lot more on state-of-the-art training and performance-enhancing drugs than other nations. In the case of China, it demonstrates that the nation's economic planners are willing to expend lots of money, that could otherwise be used to feed starving people, on high-profile propaganda victories.

There are other reasons to hate the Olympics...the pathetic production decisions of the US telecast, for one, and the "moral equivalency" gestures made by the IOC, such as having fascist North Korea and democatic South Korea march together. But I'm not sure I buy into these rationales as much as in the first three listed above.

Comments?

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Elysian Fields, TX, USA
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Yeah. Whatever.


GO USA! WE FUCKING ROCK THE PLANET MOTHERFUCKERS! SUCK MY DICK CANADA!

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Richmond, VA
Posts: 1353

quote:

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Originally posted by MrSherman:
Yeah. Whatever.


GO USA! WE FUCKING ROCK THE PLANET MOTHERFUCKERS! SUCK MY DICK CANADA!

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Elysian Fields, TX, USA
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Yes. But they lost in Women's Diving and just about everything in Track and Field.

[This message has been edited by MrSherman (edited 09-28-2000).]

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Upstate NY
Posts: 10121

I agree with you Jr ... it's a travesty compared to what it once was. It has turned into an excuse for countries to bribe officials just to host it and make millions off the tourists. I'd rather see each sport host their own annual or bi-annual championship, where the best athletes (regardless of amateur status) could compete to determine the "world's best".



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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: GA
Posts: 6953

personally, i dont give a flying fuck who wins the olympics, unless i personally know them, which is of course, a rarity. i find that watching them CAN be entertaining as well as educational. allot of these sports i would know nothing about, if it werent for the olympics, example...synchronized swimming.
another sport which was new this year, was the trampoline event. horay for any organization that can make girls with big boobs jumping on trampolines a sport. can i get an amen?

as far as being innacurate about who is the best athlete in the world etc, we all know that this is a skewed representation of the worlds population. whos to say the ethiopians wouldnt stand a chance in pole vaulting.

when it comes right down to it, i would be sad if the olympics were gone, i really enjoy seeing that much honest passion about anything in peoples actions, and expressions.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Richmond, VA
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1. The entire rationale behind the competition is flawed. The stated purpose of the so-called "Olympic Movement" is to create a two-week period every four years when sports are more important than anything else and we bring the world together to celebrate them.

This is not the point of the olympics? I don't generally watch sports, but for the past week and a half I've been glued to things like swimming and soccer just to see who will win, and to root for the home teams. I think that the olympics do generate a worldly colaboration of the minds.

Sports are ALREADY too important to too many people. High schools fire good teachers in order to boost the salary of the football coach, and neglect teaching in favor of supporting the school's athletic teams. Young people ignore academic preparation in favor of an illusory dream that they could one day play NFL football or NBA basketball. Athletes are SO lionized that many consider themselves to be above the law and the dictates of normal morality. Athletes should be given LESS attention, not more, and abolishing the Olympics is a step in the right direction.

again .. I fail to see the truth in this. the average highschool kid may want to play in the NFL. however, I bet if you looked into it, you would find that every single olympic athlete had an above average academic record. these kids (and grown-ups) should be idolized for the levels that they achive, not bagged in with the denis rodmans and such. While I agree that todays youth may suffer at the hands of poor academic structure, I dissagree that the blame should be put on the olympics

2. The International Olympic Committee is among the most corrupt organizations on the face of the planet. Under Juan Antonio Samaranch, the IOC has turned the competition over hosting the Olympics into an insane festival of bribery in which competing cities are openly expected to shower the IOC voters with lavish gifts. Whenever anyone is caught trying to "bribe" the committee, the blame is placed on the host city. It's pathetic. It's nothing more than a gravy train for a bunch of sports bureaucrats and their families. These people should be shoveling dung for a living.

I have no idea of the validity of these statments. I can say for sure that many people make alot of money from the olympics, but lots of people get rich in department stores at christmas too. I don't see to many people out to get saint nick though (not counting the loonies)

3. The playing field is skewed. The Olympics does not determine who the best athletes in the world are. It determines who has the best-financed sports machine and the most unbalanced priorities. In the case of the USA, it demonstrates that we can spend a lot more on state-of-the-art training and performance-enhancing drugs than other nations. In the case of China, it demonstrates that the nation's economic planners are willing to expend lots of money, that could otherwise be used to feed starving people, on high-profile propaganda victories.

so pepsi is the olympic champion? if I use state of the art training technics and the compatition doesn't, then they're truely a better athlete? this part of the debate makes me scratch my head. any athlete caught using drugs has their medals striped. case in point: that gymnist that had her gold yanked because the doc gave her sutifed, which contains trace amounts of a banned substance. to be a true olympic champion takes tears of hard work, training and diet and and and. pepsi only pays for the hotel and nike only pays for the outfits. the rest is provided by the athletes.

to sum it up, I don'y beleive the olympics are a bad thing. just the opposite really.. I'm sure that if you look hard enough you will find dirty spots all over it, but I think the heart of the olympics is the same as it always has been, which is to say that it's really all about the best athletes on the planet showing up to win medals.




[This message has been edited by MadBomber (edited 09-28-2000).]

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Sydney
Posts: 2570

Ack! I don't have time to respond to this because I'm on my way to the men's soccer.
I will when I get back!
I have made some assumptions underlying the original post though, and maybe they're wrong:
1. That chips has never lived in a city for the 7 years it takes to organise a games
2. That chips has never actually been to a games
3. That any personal knowledge or experience of the Olympics has either come from Atlanta or NBC
4.That chips doesn't actually know any Koreans

Oh, and MB, I went to the beach in Vancouver.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Sedona, Arizona
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Jr, you made some valid points but...
If nothing else, the fact that the Aussies were able to clear out all of the wallabies out of an area the size of the Olympic venue and kept marauding flocks of wombats from attacking the contestants has made the Olympics worth having.
Not since the digging of the Panama Canal (which we want back, by the way) has there been an undertaking so monumental and this was all done by a people who mumble worse than Goatboy.
You may wish to reconsider your stance once you give that some thought.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: In a Blue, Blue State
Posts: 12584

On a related note, I read that snake charmers in India are pressing to make it an Olympic event.

And I think that flaming ought to be a demo sport next time around. We have quite the international group of entrants for that sport.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: 54.60°N 5.70°W
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1. The entire rationale behind the competition is flawed.

No, it's not. You'll forgive me, but I find your argument in point 1 unforgivably USA-biased. The rest of the world does not seem to suffer from the 'Jock' itch that seems to blight young adolescents in North America. Sure, sports are important the world over; they give young men and women that competative nature, and yes, sometimes it boils over into something altogether more important than it should be. This does not therefore mean that the games, as a whole, are flawed.

2. The International Olympic Committee is among the most corrupt organizations on the face of the planet.

Agreed. They are bloody awful. Once again, this does not, however, constitute a valid argument for the abolition of the games. If it did, the logical conclusion of such an argument would be the ruination of the European Community, The US Senate, NATO, et cetera. All of the above are managed by unbelievably corrupt quangos. Just because the people in charge couldn't organise a blocking-session in a brewery doesn't mean that you need to take away the service it provides to the people below.

3. The playing field is skewed.

Well, yes. It is and it isn't. Every games has its heroes and its villans. This time it has been 'Eric the Eel', a swimmer from Equitorial Guinea, I believe, who is so terminally crap at the event it defies belief. He started swimming this January in his local river, from which they had to clear the crocodiles etc. But he turned up to represent his country with a smile. Great Britain sent over several atheletes who are all amateur athletes. In the coxless 4s (rowing), which the UK won, only 1 of them doesn't have a day job.

I see your point though. When competing at the top levels, it is a level playing field and the countries with the most money to throw at long-term athletics training for their kids will invariably win the most medals.

And this is where your argument is flawed. Coming back with medals is not the point of the games. I'm sure it's bloody nice for all involved, but it's about the spirit of competition. The point is not lost in the present day - on the contrary I think it is more important now than ever. It is one of the few truly international events we have. In these days of battles being fought with chemical weapons, never-ending peace processes, continual meetings of world leaders to sit about and stroke their mutual egos for a week - and so on - it is vitally refreshing to have something that unites all of us, something which we can all participate in and which does not involve wishing harm on one another.

Yes, some of the coverage is tripe. Yes, the drugs thing has become a major pain in the ass, and no, we do not need to get rid of the games. Changes are needed, certainly, but not in the manner you suggest.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Sydney
Posts: 2570

I must have sounded mean before. I suppose I’m getting tired of having to defend my enjoyment of the Olympics. For the last 7 years, all we’ve heard is scandal after scandal, fuckup after fuckup – ticketing debacles, criticism of the medal designs, enquiries into how many cocktails someone in Salt Lake City bought Sandy Holloway, wondering which IOC official’s daughter would light the cauldron. On and on and on. Everyone was over the IOC and the games years ago. People made plans to go overseas or into hibernation. “Waste of money”, “What about the traffic?” etc. etc.

And then suddenly they were here. And suddenly we realised the point. It’s not about money, or TV coverage or endorsements. It truly is about bringing people together. And it works. Dancing with the Brazilians at beach volleyball, volunteers rapping directions to trains to make the crowds laugh, no bitching or complaining, learning the Swedish chants at the handball, going out of your way to help someone, chatting to athletes and visitors from everywhere, sharing a joke with a Russian official and Eric the Eel having the opportunity to meet his heroes. Even Juan Samaranch was applauded wildly at the taekwondo. It’s like everyone has a clean slate, and anything seems possible. World tolerance and goodwill achievable in microcosm. It actually meant something to Koreans here to see their athletes join hands.

It’s difficult to communicate an atmosphere, and you guys can be as cynical as you like. I don’t really care. I’ve never experienced anything like it. Geeks, goths and grandparents are all out having a great time together. I saw a guy at a bar last night get into an argument with the staff. Everyone looked at him in utter amazement. And then it struck me I hadn’t seen an angry look or heard an angry word for the last 3 weeks.
I don’t think you can buy that.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Sedona, Arizona
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And the Molock toss!!!! Don't forget the Molock toss!

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Australia
Posts: 470

*hugz absolut*
i love you babe

have some fun for me

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Registered: Jul 2000
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quote:

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Originally posted by CHiPsJr:
1. The entire rationale behind the competition is flawed. The stated purpose of the so-called "Olympic Movement" is to create a two-week period every four years when sports are more important than anything else and we bring the world together to celebrate them.

Sports are ALREADY too important to too many people. High schools fire good teachers in order to boost the salary of the football coach, and neglect teaching in favor of supporting the school's athletic teams. Young people ignore academic preparation in favor of an illusory dream that they could one day play NFL football or NBA basketball. Athletes are SO lionized that many consider themselves to be above the law and the dictates of normal morality. Athletes should be given LESS attention, not more, and abolishing the Olympics is a step in the right direction.

I agree with Pangloss on this point. Your argument is about the Olympics as aglobal event, yet your citation for example is entirely US centric. I cannot vouch for the rest of the world, but in the case of the UK, we certainly don;t promote sports in the way the US does. For instance, you will NEVER get a place at Oxford or Cambridge because you are the best rugby/ footballer/ sportsman in the world. Of course I may be incorrect here about the US, but it is my understanding, based on information outputted from the said country, that if one is a prize quarterback you will inevitably get a scholarship to a good college. Of course like I say, I may be misinformed here, so if I am just tell me.

2. The International Olympic Committee is among the most corrupt organizations on the face of the planet. Under Juan Antonio Samaranch, the IOC has turned the competition over hosting the Olympics into an insane festival of bribery in which competing cities are openly expected to shower the IOC voters with lavish gifts. Whenever anyone is caught trying to "bribe" the committee, the blame is placed on the host city. It's pathetic. It's nothing more than a gravy train for a bunch of sports bureaucrats and their families. These people should be shoveling dung for a living.

I do agree that they are corrupt. But then I would argue that that is the inevitable consequence of living in a capitalist world. I mean every clique has elements of corruption, from government, too agencies, too boardroom nepotism. I am not sure whether that should justify aboloishing the games in their entirety.

3. The playing field is skewed. The Olympics does not determine who the best athletes in the world are. It determines who has the best-financed sports machine and the most unbalanced priorities. In the case of the USA, it demonstrates that we can spend a lot more on state-of-the-art training and performance-enhancing drugs than other nations. In the case of China, it demonstrates that the nation's economic planners are willing to expend lots of money, that could otherwise be used to feed starving people, on high-profile propaganda victories.

Chips, you are of course right in the sense that it demonstartes you can spend more monmey on innovation in training etc. But then it also shows that you have the best athletes in the world (in the events you have won of course). Once again I do not see this as justification for the games abolishment. Reform perhaps, but abolishment? I am not convinced.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Location Location
Posts: 26385

I only have three things to add here. Still, it was cool food for thought.

1. As has been said before, corruption is rampant in all sorts of things. To base an argument that extreme corruption should lead to abolishing said organization, then there goes the Vatican, every government in the world, and most schools at that. Corruption does not require abolishing, it requires reform.

2. The only argument left then is really not one specific to the Olympics, but one that reaches to ALL sports EVERYWHERE. Slippery slope, as it were. And if you are willing to argue for the abolisment of all sports everywhere, I can take my arguement to that level as well. Granted, the Olympics may be the zenith of sports and that competition mentality, but to allow it's abolishment on those grounds is to allow the abolishment of all sports, down to the pee-wee league soccer levels.

3. I went to the Olympics when they were in Atlanta, and I am with Absolut. It really does MEAN something. There is an energy there that is impossible to nail down but is also undeniable in it's power. Hard to explain I guess. I saw the Quarterfinal Men's Football game (both, actually) where Nigeria beat Brazila. One one side of me was a very proper British family. On the other were a bunch of raving lunatic Brazilians with tiki drums and shit, going NUTS. It was electric. Nigeria ended up winning that day, and as the crowds poured out of the PACKED stadium, I remember the Brazilian gang and the Nigerian gang met up (the hardcore fans I mean). And what amazed me was that both groups were streaming tears, the Brazilians HONESTLY congratulating the Nigerians on a great game. Not even in the bullshit sense of the word that is normal for most sporting events, not the veiled contempt I was used to seeing. You could see it in their eyes. They were crushed but at the same time genuinly happy for the Nigerians. The Nigerians were absolutly elated, but also held obvious enormous respect for the other team. When those two groups came together, and everybody was embracing, it made a scene I am likely to never forget.

The Nigerian's ended up winning the whole thing, BTW. The Brazilians were there, cheering them on the whole way, as excited and nuts as the Nigerians.

In any case, absolut is right, it IS the only real world event we have, where we come together in friendly competition, and has been host to some of the greatest stories ever. The Berlin Olympics, The image of the black gloves held high and proud. Holy shit.

And man, you could feel the elation in EVERY ONE of the SCORES of people there.

And this was the day after it got bombed.

I can't imagine what it must be like in Sydney right now.

*spanks ChiPsJR*

Bad boy! BAD boy! Go to your room!

[This message has been edited by Paint CHiPs (edited 09-30-2000).]

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: 51N3, 114W3
Posts: 1071

You all missed the most important points as to why the Olympics should be abolished:

-Maurice Greene and that wagging tounge thing he does (honestly, what the fuck is that)
-The extended and may I say nauseating display by the US 4x100 teamon their victory lap
-CJ Hunter's whining ("no, really, I test 1000 times the legal limit for a steroid because of a nutritional suppelment"--yes, it's true. Apparently Hunter eats about a horse a day)
-To make this a little shorter: American athletes *cough* 'roid freaks *cough* in general
-And the number one reason to ban the Olympics: two words... race walking *shudder*

I like this stuff. A lot. Even if my country did only slightly better than, say Guam, this Olympics.

Let me just put it this way:

I think a lot of the attraction has partial to do with that, in sport, the type of patriotism normally imbuded to fanatics and people with abnormally small testicals can freely be expressed (and, yes, after two weeks of relatively constant wear my "Canada Basketball" hoody us plenty smelly), there is true raw human emotion involved (for an example take a look on the face of Inge de Bruijn after she won the gold in the women's 100m free), and it's amazing to watch just how far, fast and strong the human body can become.

Now I'm going to sit down and watch the closing ceremonies and lose yet another nights sleep. But then again I'm nucking futs.

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ookook

[This message has been edited by scatmonkey (edited 10-01-2000).]

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: 51N3, 114W3
Posts: 1071

"Off" is not an option.

Mute is.

Ergo, Shania Twain goes from blight of the airwaves to pixelated eyecandy.

***MoreMediaSaturationMoreMustHaveMore***

monkey need banana.



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ookook

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Sydney
Posts: 2570

Scat..I think you need to turn the TV OFF.
"Sore winners" are another thread.
But you know I love you anyhow

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