The Olympics

Do you care about the Olympic games? Are they an opportunity for the world's best athletes to prove their talent? Or are they just an over-hyped distraction from more important matters? To what extent have the Olympics been marred by China hosting them, considering their involvement with Tibet, their suppression of protests, and the forcing of people to move home to make way for the Olympic village?

Personally, I don’t care much about the Olympics. I do find it amusing that the countries are trying to take the credit for the efforts of their individual athletes (by saying that Britain has won 16 golds, when actually it is just that 16 people who co-incidentally happen to come from Britain have won gold medals).

This is purely a personal opinion, and I am sure will be heavily criticised by others, but I feel that it is a poor thing to give so much attention to people that have no other way of feeling that they can contribute to their societies than by using their bodies rather than their brains. It is just a personal opinion, but I have felt that many of the athletes competing (when shown interviewed) would have great difficulty in finding any other way of making a living or contributing to society if it wasn’t for the popularity of their sport.

Another thing that annoys me is that many of the events in the games are not what most people would consider to be sports, and especially that many events are not sports that are widely available for all the populations of the competing countries to compete in (for example, the equestrian events – not many people can afford to try these sports due to the expense of having a horse; or sailing – same reason with effect of affording a boat; etc). Events in such a worldwide competition should be in sports that anyone in all countries are able to try and compete in.

I think you're being a bit harsh on the athletes, Nick. Surely they are using their brains as well as their bodies, in that training for the sports requires self-discipline, committment and finely-tuned hand-eye co-ordination (with gymnastics, for example). These are all mental skills, and are just as important as physical skills like stamina or speed. Also, I think that we all have to play to our individual strengths and talents, and if someone finds that they have a talent for sport, surely they should make the most of it? It doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have other talents too.
I think you're quite right about the nationalistic aspect of the Olympics. A similar point can be made about football teams whose players and supporters may only have an arbitrary connection with the town or city that 'their' team is named after.

As I said, I knew that I'd get into trouble for saying that. I was just going by the few ones that I saw interviewed, all of which seemed to have difficulty in concentrating, speaking their own language and staying still long enough to reply. They just reminded me of an outing from a school for the mentally disabled.

In regard to your comment about teams having non-indigenous members or supporters, I am a great believer that if you are going to have regional teams then the members of those teams should only be permitted to come from that region (examples of this are football teams with foreign players, athletes like Zola Budd – if anyone remembers her – who competed for countries other than ones they belonged to, and so on). If you are going to have a team (say Birmingham City Football Club, as an example) then all member of that team should come from that area (in this case Birmingham) and from no other region, otherwise they are not really representatives of that region, so the supporters cannot, in all justification, support them as a local or regional team.

The athletes I've seen on telly have usually been interviewed only minutes after finishing their race, when they're still out of breath and psyched up from competing. So no wonder they've sounded a bit disorientated!