In my last post I should have said that the CBC had 24-7 coverage of the WINTER OLYMPICS.
I wrote this four years ago for a paordy sports news website.
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!
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.
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
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…
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
The Olympics have always bored me immensely. I’ve just never seen much appeal to watching any of the competitions usually televised.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Jeez, didn’t anyone see this? I’d call that something.