So the Olympic Games have officially started in Sydney, although some sports have been competing for a while already. Big deal.
I remember being excited about the Olympics as a kid. Maybe it's just me, but they seemed a lot more fun then. Of course, I was probably just oblivious to the political overtones the Games had. Now the overtones dominate. I am sick of hearing about which country is predicted to "win" the Olympics. Presumably, this means that country's athletes coming home with the most medals, or most gold medals, or maybe the most medals in the "important" sports (as if some of the activities were actually sports). Personally, if I have to see another "Up Close and Personal" with some Siberian cow-tipper, there is going to be some major chunkage. Lookit, Ivan, I don't give a rat's ass about the plow you push behind an oxen team after you finish your daily training - I just want to see how fast you can run.
The whole bribery scandal surrounding the upcoming Utah games seems to capture the essence of what the Games have become. Some Olympians will stop at nothing in their quest to win, whether it be an athlete blood doping to improve endurance, a country entering professional athletes for what was originally an amateur competition, or an official greasing the skids to secure rights to host the Games and thereby reap the economic rewards that have commonly been associated with the Games since the Los Angeles spectacle.
As usual, I have an impractical but straightforward solution to these problems. Split the Games into two camps. One camp, for purists, continues to allow drug-free amateur athletes to compete in the original Olympic sports (as far as I am concerned, the decathalon pretty much covers it). The other camp is a no-holds-barred competition. In particular, drugs are not banned, and would essentially be required to raise an athlete's performance to the level of the field of other doped up contestants. One might imagine that the mortality rate would be quite high - those not willing to risk it could always stay drug-free and compete in the purist camp.
Just how far can human spirit and the liberal use of anabolic steroids and Human Growth Hormone push the records envelope? Maybe someday we'll find out.
You can respond to my ranting here.
A tisket, a tasket, I ranted in a basket.