# Are the Olympics outdated? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 11, 2004, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447 "2004-08-11T22:50:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/21 "2004-08-13T11:34:14Z")
In my last post I should have said that the CBC had 24-7 coverage of the WINTER OLYMPICS. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2004, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/22 "2004-08-13T17:40:20Z")
I wrote this four years ago for a paordy sports news website. > [@](#): > > \*\*Australia Gets Ready for the “Most Irrelevant Olympics Ever” \*\* > > SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - Organizers are already proclaiming the upcoming Summer Olympics in Australia as the “Most Irrelevant Olympics Ever”. The declining relevance of the Olympics since the end of the Cold War have primed the way for this year’s installment to be full of meaningless nationalistic overtones and for setting records for ambivalence. > > “This year represents the first pure opportunity for sport to be separate from politics, making such events as Archery and Greco-Roman wrestling completely devoid of any interest or meaning whatsoever,” gushed Sydney Organizer Willaim Tennyson. > > Clearly if the lack of hype and interest leading up to the Summer Games is any indication, then this should be the least cared about Olympics since first Olympics in 1898. > > U.S Olympic officials agreed, noting that finally the contrived interest in normally uninteresting or boring sports derived from strong political and ideological overtones would be absent. “I am sure Americans will want Americans to win, but actually they won’t really care too much. At least that is our hope.” > > Although the Cold War ahas been over for almost a decade, it has taken this long for the lingering sociopolitical sub-text to completely remove itself from the competition. And as literary critic Janice Templeton explained, “There really is no compelling sub-textual meaning to the competition anymore. Without it the plotlines that made prior Olympics so interesting are left flat, creating at best only superficial tension and meaning.” > > Even Head of the IOC Juan Antonio Samaranch agreed, “When you have events and participants that folks in general know or care nothing about then it is far from interesting to watch. That is why a sub-plot that is broad and universal provides the needed contextual depth to make us care about the outcome of many of these otherwise meaningless events. Thankfully all that is now missing and we can hopefully carry off an Olympic Games in relative obscurity and with heightened disinterest.” ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2004, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/23 "2004-08-14T00:34:56Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > The networks now purposely gear coverage towards women viewers. Sorry I don’t have a cite for that but I have seen and heard this on numerous occasions and the point is rarely argued. I don’t dispute your point - but I find it quite ironic that not only I, but every other woman I know, also dislikes the Olympic coverage. We have the same gripes about it that you do! Too many of those nauseating “human interest moments,” not enough coverage of the sports themselves, too much emphasis on American athletes at the expense of all the other athletes competing, too commercial. Maybe the media ought to try taking a risk and simply show us the Games? They might fare better with that approach than they’d expect! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/24 "2004-08-16T01:36:52Z")
If the Olympics were never held again, I would not care in the slightest. Of course, I feel the same way about virtually every sporting event in exsistence, so I’m perhaps not the best person to answer this question. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/25 "2004-08-16T02:08:36Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Do we really need them anymore? From a north american centric viewing angle , nope , not needed anymore. But everywhere else in the world , its probably the one time that they get to compete world wide, so it probably falls to the rest of the world still wanting the games. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/26 "2004-08-16T03:05:22Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > If the Olympics were never held again, I would not care in the slightest. > > Of course, I feel the same way about virtually every sporting event in exsistence, so I’m perhaps not the best person to answer this question. My friend, I feel the same way! And get this… I was actually a competitor in 1984. Think about that… when former Olympians start to find the Olympics irrelevant, that’s really saying something. Sure, I watched the Men’s Road Race in Cycling because THAT was my event, but other than that, on principle I won’t watch anything else. The Olympics, like so many other aspects of popular culture, have merely become yet another vehicle to extract every last cent out of every citizen the world over. Perhaps, if the IOC dialled back 50% of the insane “mission creep” they’ve experienced these past 20 years I might change my attitude, but until then, I’ll maintain my position that the Olympic movement has descended into an institution which is now a sporting version of “Survivor/American Idol/Big Brother” all rolled into one. I mean seriously… there’s talk of making skateboarding an Olympic sport. Fuck off I say… ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/27 "2004-08-16T07:04:15Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > I don’t know how the coverage has changed over the years in nations other than the USA, but here it’s become “lets find a human interest /hero for every damn sport”. I suspect that this is because the majority of sports played at the Olympics just aren’t that popular in the states. So they look for other ways to hook people. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/28 "2004-08-16T07:24:21Z")
The Olympics have always bored me immensely. I’ve just never seen much appeal to watching any of the competitions usually televised. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/29 "2004-08-16T13:49:14Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > I don’t see what’s so hard to understand. It was getting to be too much of a burden on the IOC, the national Olympic committes, and the broadcasters to oversee or attend two Olympic games in the same year. Hence, the split of the Winter Games into its separate schedule. > > And I don’t see how this affects the “grandeur” of the event one way or another. Before, there was a gap of only six months or so between the winter games and the summer games. Did that make the summer games less glamorous? > > Ed What I liked about having both sets of games the same year was that it added to the internationalist feel of the event. Usually you had the summer olympics in one place, and the winter olympics somewhere on the other side of the globe, like L.A. and Sarejevo in 1984. Two regions of the earth got some international focus during the same year. IMO that made things more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/30 "2004-08-16T16:28:23Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > From a north american centric viewing angle , nope , not needed anymore. But everywhere else in the world , its probably the one time that they get to compete world wide, so it probably falls to the rest of the world still wanting the games. Eh? The “rest of the world” competes internationally all the friggin’ time - most olympic events have regional and world championships besides. From a Euro-centric viewing angle, (and I know this is painting with a wide brush), it seems to be the US athletes (and their fanbase) who’re not interested in international competitions. Obviously, the preference for sports played almost exclusively in the US may have something to do with this. As it happens, I’m bored stiff by watching any sports event, but I do check out the Olympics for the event and the drama. ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/31 "2004-08-16T17:04:07Z")
hehe… I don’t think this Olympics is going unseen in Australia… they are winning an awful lot of swimming medals. 🙂 Overall its all about national feelings and pride. Sometimes sport. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/32 "2004-08-16T17:57:07Z")
> [@Spiny Norman](#): > > Eh? The “rest of the world” competes internationally all the friggin’ time - most olympic events have regional and world championships besides. From a Euro-centric viewing angle, (and I know this is painting with a wide brush), it seems to be the US athletes (and their fanbase) who’re not interested in international competitions. I agree, and was thinking exactly the same thing when I read **Declan’s** post. Perhaps he was thinking that the rest of the world is deprived because they don’t participate in the World Series. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/33 "2004-08-16T19:20:21Z")
I’ve lost some interest as well, but I think that’s less because of their bloatedness and because of NBC’s sappy saturation coverage than because of the end of the Cold War. It used to be absolutely critical to outmedal the godless Commie Soviets as a way to show them that their approach could never win; that even by focusing their entire national attention on making a team of Ivan Dragos they couldn’t beat our freedom-and-democracy-loving approach. What was the greatest moment for the US Olympic teams of recent decades? Right, beating the Russians for the 1980 gold medal in \*ice hockey \* of all things, their sport. Yes, that sounds a little silly at some remove, but we mostly did buy into it to some extent. Hey, how many of you’d stop watching Miss Universe pageants if the contestants didn’t have your country’s name on their sashes? Same thing. Who’s left now for “our guys” to beat whom it is truly \*satisfying \* to beat, now that there ain’t nobody there wearing red uniforms with CCCP across the front anymore? Sure, we can still cheer for our own countrymen, guys we never heard of before and won’t care about after the flame is doused, but it just isn’t the same. Maybe the rest of the world can now get a special thrill out of beating the Americans, though. ---
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/34 "2004-08-16T22:37:22Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > \ > > Who’s left now for “our guys” to beat whom it is truly \*satisfying \* to beat, now that there ain’t nobody there wearing red uniforms with CCCP across the front anymore? Sure, we can still cheer for our own countrymen, guys we never heard of before and won’t care about after the flame is doused, but it just isn’t the same. Maybe the rest of the world can now get a special thrill out of beating the Americans, though. A very fine post. Most insightful. However, I can’t stress highly enough how incredibly scathing Dick Pound’s comments were about the morally bankrupt state of affairs which currently exists within the backrooms of the US Track and Field Association. As you know, traditionally the USA is a powerhouse in Track and Field, but this past 3 years (and most likely prior to Sydney 2000) has tainted USTF with unbelievable acidity. The latest reports of 143 American athletes having received THG vials from the BALCO Laborities alone (and who knows what other undetectable PED’s are yet to be discovered) have left an insurmountable impression in the “rest of the world” that beating the American’s in track and field is a hollow achievement now. The general consensus I’m hearing is that USTF is now perceived as having effectively descended into a corrupt state of affairs even worse than the Chinese swimmers circa 1992 - and THAT’S saying something. ---
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/35 "2004-08-16T22:44:58Z")
Although, in the interests of fairness, it should be noted that China seems to be cleaning up in women’s weightlifting at the moment, and I point blank refuse to believe that the culture of “whatever it takes” which existed circa '92 in China’s Women’s Swimming Program has NOT found it’s spiritual new home in their Women’s Weightlifting program. As I’ve said elsewhere, at the rate it’s going nowadays, I can’t see the Olympics lasting for another 20 years. The only possible solution is for every country to nominate their Olympians 2 years in advance, and then all fucking 10,000 of 'em go into a lock down camp somewhere which 100% denies any outside contact so as to remove the possibility of drug taking. And I can’t see that happening. I bet you the medal tally would look REALLY different however. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/36 "2004-08-16T23:28:01Z")
> [@Boo Boo Foo](#): > > Although, in the interests of fairness, it should be noted that China seems to be cleaning up in women’s weightlifting at the moment… Somehow I can’t get all that worked up about women’s weightlifting. 🙂 I love the Olympics. In the US, we don’t get a lot of TV coverage of truely world-wide sporting events. I love the international flavor and although I do usually cheer for the US athletes, there are plenty of times when I’m happy to see “the best man win”, regardless of the country that person is from. Do as much drug testing as possible, and let us just enjoy watching these superb athletes amaze us with their feats of strength and skill. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447/37 "2004-08-17T04:42:21Z")
[![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/Ryan_Liam/Iraqisback.bmp) ](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/Ryan_Liam/Iraqisback.bmp) Jeez, didn’t anyone see this? I’d call that something. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-olympics-outdated/259447.md?page=1)