The Olympics have saturated television once again. It’s a biannual celebration of athletes and waste.
When I was a kid–I loved the Olympics…particularly the Winter ones. Between skiiing and bobsleading (who didn’t like Cool Runnings?), I enjoyed watching these highly trained athletes risk their all to win at these races.
However, in my mind the commercial aspect of the games has destroyed them. The athletes are billed as amateurs–except they’re not. They are highly sponsored athletes, and some this is only a second gig–think of all of the hockey, basketball and baseball players who are invited to join the olympic teams.
Half of the “sports” aren’t even sports. Ice dancing? Come on…ice dancing isn’t a sport. It’s a dance. I’m not saying it’s not difficult, but it’s not a sport. Ice skating… also not a sport. The outcomes are scored by a set of men and women who have proved themselves to be quite biased in the past–remember what happened at the last winter olympics? Yea, the French judge who sold her vote.
And I wonder about all of the companies (Bank of America, Home Depot) that drop millions of dollars supporting the games. Does it actually help their marketing efforts? I know BOA is reconsidering their olympic support following the 2006 games.
I guess at the end of the day, I see the whole olympic scene as a farse. The IOC is a biased, political body who look out for themselves more than anything else. The advertisers waste their money. NBC wasted billions for the tv rights for two weeks of programming. And the athletes have spent their entire lives training to win one race–only to be forgotten the second they step off the platform.