I don’t think the Oly’s “matter” but I enjoy watching them.
Bb, I don’t think I have any desire to go to Almaty either, it sounds like it’s cold too. My butt will certainly freeze.
I think the Olympic Games matter more now than ever. We live in a small world now with a lot of people and the Olympics allow the best athletes from all over the world to meet together and showcase to TV viewers worldwide their extraordinary athletic talents in all the different sports at one big international event. I am all for the Olympic games. but I don’t think the locals alone hosting games should get stuck with tab…every nation participating needs to chip in some for expenses fairly.
“I am all for the Olympic games. but I don’t think the locals alone hosting games should get stuck with tab…every nation participating needs to chip in some for expenses fairly.”
@lizard I agree. It’s a colossal expenditure - either get a permanent venue (different nations can still “host” by creating a country-specific theme & entertainment) - or share costs every 4 years.
I’d hate for the Olympics to disappear because of the financial burdens associated with hosting – and that’s sort of where we’re headed right now.
The olympics have never been a good deal for the hosting cities.
They aren’t as riveting now either. It used to be our US amateurs against the Soviet army representatives. Now its just our professionals against our professionals, representing their native countries.
Hard to believe but supposedly Greece economically benefited from 2004 Olympics.
It was a lot of fun living in London when the Olympics were on. So many people worked from home or went on holiday that the public transport and traffic were better than normal, not worse.I highly recommend the whole experience. I went to rowing, sailing and swimming (and a whole lot of the paralympics as well).
Most Americans seem to see the Olympics as some kind of display of their superiority. Understand that most participating countries can never aspire to top the medal table (and would spend the money needed to do so on something else, even if they could). It’s seen as something fun, which is special because all countries can participate, even if they have no chance of any medals at all.
I lived in LA during the 84 Olympics; my parents went to the Opening Ceremony. It was a lot of fun. And FWIW, the games in London had my all-time-favorite opening and closing ceremonies.
They’re less relevant to me because I’ve become aware that we’re subsidizing people who want to white water raft or ride on sleds in the name of some weird national pride that has become highly diluted as guys from x country compete for y country and there is no Cold War. Many of these sports are somewhat at least self-supporting - track & field, much skiing - but I question more and more the sense that we have an obligation to pay for people who to spend much of their lives training to compete, plus the coaches, the facilities, the administrators, the meals, the travel, etc. I don’t care any more about the personal struggles of some athlete who wants to win a medal. When I was a kid, I saw value in that, maybe in the idea that these people were “idols” but now I see it as more a selfish pursuit, one which often requires public subsidy and/or tremendous sacrifice by family members and friends. Or as I think of it: lots of people want to be musicians but if they don’t make money at it then the state doesn’t write them checks and hire sound engineers and roadies.
And the Olympic “movement” means less and less with time because it has clearly failed to alleviate any tensions in the world and clearly never will. And the money-sucking nature of the IOC appears to rival FIFA.
My attitude may be distorted because I live in Boston and followed the process of bid, etc. and understand that in the end the US committee insisted that Boston sign up without any meaningful specification of what the city and region’s liability would be. No one should commit to something of this magnitude on vague promises.
(I’d bet LA got concessions not offered to Boston, btw, because LA is big and the US committee hope, I believe, is that Boston somehow “needed” the games more to “become World Class” and similar nonsense. The gist of that garbage is that Boston is under 700k population so it isn’t ever going to be London or even Chicago but that it’s certainly top of the world class in what it does well, like in education and research.)
I avoided London during the summer Olymoics.
I don’t care if the U.S. never hosts an Olympic event. I also don’t get all fired up when an American wins a gold medal. But I typically don’t care about sports in general.
I love watching female figure skating, I think it’s Winter Olympics. And I do get fired up when USA team wins.
As the parent of an Olympian, my perspective is different. Yes, the athlete’s goal is personal, but the accumulated years of sacrifice, hard work, and self-discipline, the successes and the failures, and the exposure, through travel, to other countries and cultures–all of these and more contributed to our daughter’s strength of character and her sense of herself as someone who wants to accomplish good in the world. She always took seriously her role as an ambassador for her sport and for the country she represented. In addition, her experience has set her on a path toward a career in international relations, with a possible focus on humanitarian aid or conflict management in a particular part of the world.
I cannot speak for other sports, but there is very little subsidization of athletes in our daughter’s sport. Even the wealthiest countries provide very limited support–except perhaps for Russia in the run-up to Sochi–while in the poorer countries the athletes really struggle. I have seen many talented athletes retire from the sport, simply because they cannot afford to train.
In any event, I’m sure there is much to disapprove of in the business of the Olympics, but I have seen the Olympic spirit at work in many athletes long after their careers as competitors are over. These are individuals who are never afraid to dream the big dream or to set their sights high, regardless of the odds of success. I admire their positivity. I have also seen the Olympic Movement at work through the deep, enduring friendships among athletes from all over the world, even as they must compete against one another season after season. So yes, in my experience, the Olympics still matter.
Keeping score of the medal count has become a cynical exercise for china to “game” the games, i.e. deliberately focus on obscure sports that no one cares about and that offer opportunities for several gold medals, just to rack up medals-- much like HS kids taking many obscure AP classes just for the sake of maximizing AP classes.
China’s Project 119
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/corruption-souring-china-gold-medals
I used to care about the Olympics a lot more than I do now. The loss of amateurism in many sports, the performance-enhancing drugs…it’s a turn off.
I enjoyed watching hockey and basketball when the players from non-Soviet bloc nations were actual amateurs. I couldn’t give a damn now. The track and field events have lost most of their interest for me now that it seems to be a drug contest.
The coverage available through the US network also drives me crazy. I can’t stand the constant cutting between events, the way that events/sports that don’t feature Americans are ignored, and so on. I’d like to see more than the top few skaters/divers/whatever. Tennis as an Olympic sport consisting of the same old crowd of touring pros? Bleah. (Okay, I will admit that Andy Murray winning in London was special, but other than that it is meaningless.)
THIS! Absolutely this!
I do like the Olympics but it’s almost painful to watch them on American channels. This will be my first time watching the Olympics with DVR and I can’t wait to record non-American channels. I watched most of the last few Olympics online because the coverage here was atrocious.
I’m not sure if they “matter” per se but I (personally) think they’ve gone over the top. I absolutely love sports and what the Olympics can represent- coming together of nations in a shared love of a single activity. However, I really just don’t think you need to invest billions of dollars into building these stadiums and whatnot that are likely not going to be used again.
Why not build permanent venues in 3 different time zones, then rotate.
I think that there ought to be a permanent summer venue in Greece and a permanent winter venue in Switzerland.
Although the local color is part of the fun, it is just too expensive and too prone to corruption.
Actually I think that the state does do that in myriad ways through National Endowment for the Arts and other things. I’m not sure there is an equivalent for athletes. So possibly a bad example.
I almost lost faith in the olympics when they temporarily removed wrestling, but luckily they came to their senses and added it back