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With every Olympiad that passes, it becomes clearer the Olympics have transcended their original intentions in order to incorporate a host of ideals non-specific to the spirit of the games. Every two years, I am told to support the most attractive and marketable athletes from my country as they compete in fringe sports – sports I would likely be unaware of if not for the Olympics — in order to show national pride.
Patriotism is one of the greatest and most exploitable engines of motivation for the United States or any country. The Olympics exploit it for the commercial and domestic interests of the countries in power — European nations —rather than the interests of global athletes.
The relatively recent addition to the Winter Olympic Games of adrenaline “sports” like the snowboard halfpipe, skiing aerials and skeleton, coupled with the expansion of Nordic and alpine skiing events, exemplify the corporate-minded nature of the games. In order to increase television ratings, the International Olympic Committee has aligned itself with sledding events that are really just glorified children’s games become a haphazard imitation of the Winter X Games and expanded many of the games’ true sports to the breaking point.
Why, for instance, are there 10 medal events for the biathlon, 20 for speed skating and 15 for cross-country skiing? I certainly hope it is not to nurture these sports worldwide, because half the world has neither the climate nor the topography to support these events. And do we really need to foster a strong affinity in the other half for racing on frozen surfaces atop medieval weapons or for ski-by shootings? In my mind, the mere inclusion of many events in the Olympics is questionable, and their expansion is deplorable at worst and confusing at best.
I am not against the growth and evolution of the Olympic Games, and do not propose to return them to their original, ancient Greek iteration — that would simply be anachronistic — but I do support celebrating the original intention of the games: promoting genuine, national athletic pride.
It should be the responsibility of the IOC to see the games strive toward that ideal.
The first thing they should do is to decrease the number of events included in the Olympics. There are a number of games, both recreational and competitive, that people find amusing, but that should not guarantee them a spot in an event dedicated to athletic supremacy. To me, there is little difference between the athletic merits of bowling vs. curling, Indy Car racing vs. the luge, and skateboard halfpipe vs. snowboard halfpipe, yet only the latter in all cases are Olympic events.
In the ancient games, athletes competed fully naked as a testament to the power and grace of the body in athletics. This year, US snowboarder Nate Holland criticized a Canadian snowboarder for having pants that were too tight. The most attention bodies seem to be getting in the Olympics these days is on the dance floor of Canadian nightclubs. Just ask Scotty Lago, who was asked to leave the games after racy pictures of him, a young lady and his bronze medal were caught in a precarious position on camera.
Athletes don’t need to return to nude competition, but events do need to start catering to traditional athleticism again. That means eliminating sports that rely on technology, sports that can be played at an old folks home — curling — and adrenaline sports.
There are many more problems with the Olympics and the heavily biased IOC, but if they can trim the fat from the events and standardize them in coming years, they can become a much healthier representation of their original intentions.
Bangor Daily News