The Winter Olympics are upon us tonight. The Olympics are a time for the world to come together, for the world's best athletes to show us what they can do and for national pride to swell. Isn't it grand? Sadly...
The Olympics are also a time to show us how f**ed up these people can be. Indeed, the Olympics are a time when dictators clean out a small corner of their country, build a Potemkin Olympic village, and try to sell the world (the left mainly) on how wonderful their be-gulag'ed countries are.
It is a time when corrupt and failing countries spend vast amounts to distract from their dire circumstances and then spend vast amounts more to hide their incompetence for holding the Olympics. Yep. Remember Brazil? Remember Brazil going after Ryan Lochte for pissing on a wall and almost bringing down the Republic of Brazil... must have been a load baring wall. Or Putin going after journalists who were mocking the nonsense of Sochi.
It is a time that cities invest billions to built stadiums that will fall apart from neglect by the time the next Olympic roll around.
It is a time for some shady and petty crap. The Russians have been banned for massive cheating... except the Olympic committee is letting them in anyways as Olympic Athletes from Russia. The guy who lost the coin toss to carry the American flag at the opening is screaming racism because he's black and she's white and, well, that's about it. Some gay Olympian is whining about VP Mike Pence leading the American delegation because anyone who doesn't agree with where he likes to put his d*ck should be banned off the planet. Prepare for failed dope tests, legalistic challenges to results, narcissistic athletes hooking up like rabbits, and politicized attempts to sell things like women's hockey to an audience that has proved uncaring since forever. And look for awful "human interest" stories about the immense fakesuffering of these people.
You know, the Olympics seemed better as a kid. At least we'll always have curling, which feels honest to me. Our team works at Home Depo. I can respect that.
The Olympics are also a time to show us how f**ed up these people can be. Indeed, the Olympics are a time when dictators clean out a small corner of their country, build a Potemkin Olympic village, and try to sell the world (the left mainly) on how wonderful their be-gulag'ed countries are.
It is a time when corrupt and failing countries spend vast amounts to distract from their dire circumstances and then spend vast amounts more to hide their incompetence for holding the Olympics. Yep. Remember Brazil? Remember Brazil going after Ryan Lochte for pissing on a wall and almost bringing down the Republic of Brazil... must have been a load baring wall. Or Putin going after journalists who were mocking the nonsense of Sochi.
It is a time that cities invest billions to built stadiums that will fall apart from neglect by the time the next Olympic roll around.
It is a time for some shady and petty crap. The Russians have been banned for massive cheating... except the Olympic committee is letting them in anyways as Olympic Athletes from Russia. The guy who lost the coin toss to carry the American flag at the opening is screaming racism because he's black and she's white and, well, that's about it. Some gay Olympian is whining about VP Mike Pence leading the American delegation because anyone who doesn't agree with where he likes to put his d*ck should be banned off the planet. Prepare for failed dope tests, legalistic challenges to results, narcissistic athletes hooking up like rabbits, and politicized attempts to sell things like women's hockey to an audience that has proved uncaring since forever. And look for awful "human interest" stories about the immense fakesuffering of these people.
You know, the Olympics seemed better as a kid. At least we'll always have curling, which feels honest to me. Our team works at Home Depo. I can respect that.
I may watch some of it, but it won't be much. The Soviet Block athletes of yesteryear were professionals but the Americans and Europeans were not and I loved to watch them. Now all are professionals - who cares?
ReplyDeleteLL, I think it makes a huge difference. In the past, the athletes were excited and proud to be there. These days, this just seems like another part of their marketing efforts and they act like they are spoiled.
ReplyDeleteI still laugh every time I think about 1992's Dream Team. So ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI respect the effort it takes to rise to that level but I've never been an a big Olympics fan since I'm not a sports guy.
They should do away with holding the Olympics in different cities every time and all that goes with it: corrupt contracts, shoddy facilities, material waste, human displacement; the whole Potemkin façade. Instead, there should be permanent Olympic facilities in Greece, no bellyaching. Maybe the winter facilities can be in Switzerland, because Switzerland.
ReplyDeletetryanmax, That would make a lot of sense, but a lot of the sh*tholes see hosting as a way to become relevant to the world. There are also a lot of very bad economists who claim that building all these white elephant facilities will be an economic boon and will make the locals healthier as they all suddenly become interested in sports.
ReplyDeleteThat's all BS though.
Anthony, The Dream Team was a joke. I was actually in Germany at the time and I remember the American announcers being so impressed with them and the Germans being left cold -- "They're the only professionals in the world, of course they are going to win... nobody cares." And then they started to lose from time to time.
ReplyDeleteLet me clarify, by the way. In principle, I love the Olympics. When I was younger, there was much to love too. But these days, so many of the athletes have become such pissy little b*tches that it's hard to cheer for them. It's hard to watch whiny people who feel entitled.
ReplyDeleteI watched 3 of the male figure skaters last night and each one of them flubbed it and the male announcer deemed each one either the worst performance he's ever seen from that athlete or the worst Olympic performance he's ever seen. Sort of an awkward start to things. I may tune in to watch the figure skating pairs and bobsledding and luge, but otherwise, I'm with LL. Since the games have become populated by professionals I just don't care much about who wins. It was really something to be inspired by in the old days when some underdog with a true story of overcoming crappy circumstances won the gold and became a hero.
ReplyDeleteStacy, I still remember the Miracle on Ice. That was one of the most inspired moments of my life. A bunch of American college kids, given no chance to win, beat the Soviet team filled with professionals of the Red Army team. The Americans were so determined. The odds so impossible. It was amazing.
ReplyDeleteThese days, the Americans are often long-term professionals who are recognized as the best in the world and are expected to win. That's not interesting to me. Then you add the nasty, whiny factor and it becomes a real turn off. These people aren't grateful to be there, being there is an annoyance to their schedule. Again, not fun.
Andrew, Stacy, the coverage is terrible, too. It's overfilled with biographies and sob stories. You have to sit through an hour of what is essentially daytime TV to watch 15 minutes of competition.
ReplyDeleteOT: Salma Hayek is now claiming that she felt guilty not speaking out. So she's a victim for being made to pose new in films that made her rich. And she's a victim for not speaking out too -- which conveniently helps her evade responsibility for the rapes Weinstein did after she didn't speak out. And she's "brave/strong" for speaking out now that everyone else has spoken out.
ReplyDeleteThis reeks of parody, except that she (and others) are serious.
Oh, and Dr. Oprah has told us that Reece Witherspoon has shown signs of PTSD now that everyone has brought down Weinstein, i.e. please excuse her for not speaking up. //wink wink
tryanmax, That's true, but some of the back channels like CNBC often just show the sports without all the extra garbage.
ReplyDeleteA couple more beefs...
ReplyDelete(1) Will NBC never learn that we are interested in the Olympics, not "the Americans at the Olympics"? I want to see the athletes, not just the Americans.
(2) Wow, has the MSM lapped up the symbolism of North Korean sending a handful of athletes to march with the South. Why are they always so impressed with dictators who use sports to hide their horrors?
(3) Wow, get some announcers who know anything!
- "Those are important symbols in Korea (I just don't know what the are, so I won't describe them)."
- "Japan and Korea share much of a common history." Yep, in the sense that a rapist and their victim have a relationship.
- "That's going to be a big penalty (but I can't tell you what that really means because I don't know the rules of this sport)."
- //crickets as announcer waits for stadium announcer to tell him the name of the next athlete we are watching line up because the announcer doesn't know. Announcer even shamelessly says, "That took some time."
- //announcer knows only the quick bios online
Just about the only worthwhile announcers they have are John "Looks Like A Pedo" Weir and his little bitch Tara. They know the sport, know the athletes and aren't afraid to tell you what the athlete had done right/wrong and what the judges are thinking.
Then there are the commercials:
(1) All athletes are women or crippled.
(2) Every white family has a black-Arabic child.
(3) If you're an a**hoe owner of a Yurt or you're a Vegan, then Diet Coke is for you. But if you're black or you live in a favela, reward yourself with the smooth diabetes causing taste of Coke!
Andrew, you have greater tolerance than me. Tara and John have me ready to renounce figure skating forever and drunkenly drive a steam-shovel through a rink. I'm even beginning to re-think whether or not former WCW announcing team of Tony Schiavone and Mark Madden was really that bad. (And if you've heard Madden on the radio here in PGH, you know that's a new level of low for me.)
ReplyDeleteAs for the symbolism, maybe we could take a note from the Ancient Olympics. The last event was always a 'hoplite race.' (Hoplite being a Greek infantry soldier.) Basically, the contestants ran in full battle gear.
The point was that when the games were over, all bets and truces were off. Everyone had to return to reality where city-states acted in their own interest and wars were often the result. Fatalistic and having no illusions, those Greeks.
Two good things, though:
-1) Opening ceremonies: no snooty, pompous Matt Lauer. No hateful, bitchy Bob Costas. Definitely an upgrade.
-2) I don't have to wait until the Stanley Cup Playoffs to sit in front of the TV and yell, "DAMN CRAZY SWEDES!"