The Olympics bore me. I haven't been excited about them since I was a kid. A lot of that has to do with the detritus that grows every four years - the list of sports nobody really cares about. I think IOC should wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. Do we really need synchronized swimming, for instance? That may be an art form to someone, but it's not a sport. Neither is ballroom dancing. There's talk of making "dance sport" an Olympic event. I've done ballroom dancing before. It's art, not sport. Anyhow, room should be made for popular competitive sports, such as ultimate frisbee. The sad thing is, with the number of events currently bloating the Games, if ultimate was added, it'd probably be broadcast at 4 AM. *sigh* One more thing: Ban professionals from the Games!!! "Amateur" comes from Latin for "lover", i.e. an amateur one who plays for the love of the game. That's who should be competing in the Games, not a bunch of spoiled millionaires.
All of that ranting was actually a digression. My original gripe started with this BoingBoing article. The basic gist is that the Olympics were a huge ratings and advertising success, so you'd think the networks would jump at the chance to put on a similar spectacle. You'd be wrong. The Paralympics will not be aired on American television. No offense to Olympic athletes, but I think handicapped athletes are far more impressive and worth my viewing time and applause. It's a shame that Americans won't get to see some real winners. I'm not talking about winning gold medals. I'm talking about overcoming adversity and thriving in the face of it.
Funky Dung
Comments 1
Various forms of artistic expression have always been in the Olympic Games. It isn't *just* a sport venue. Over time, their number has decreased as sports have increased. It takes a long time for the competition lineup to change. The host country also has the right to accomodate less or even more of them. Even landscape painting was a competition, IIRC. Art is supposed to give the whole event some class.
These days, acceptable artforms have to involve a good measure of physical exertion and control. They seem to sit in a rather gray area between sport and art. You can pick them out quite easily since (like painting and whatnot) their scoring requires the opinon of a panel of judges. Personally, I have a hard time categorising a judged competition as a sport. A sport's final score should not require an opinion to be its basis.
Anyway, my definition of a sport does not matter at the Oympics — it was never intended to showcase such a narrow class of competition.
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Posted 14 Sep 2004 at 2:34 pm ¶Post a Comment