WEEKENDER: The degrading of the Olympic Games, by Wiggia

 

My original thought was I felt sorry for the organisers and participants at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in gay Paree. After watching for some time my mood changed to one of NGAF based on what I saw.

Difficult to know what was the intention of all this but it has nothing to do with sport unless of course Paris is being lauded as some sort of capital of perversion.

 
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As a young child in simpler times I used to love the Olympics and remember my father taking me one day to watch the games at Wembley. The only person that sticks in my mind was the ‘Flying Housewife’ Fanny Blankers – Koen winning one of her four gold medals, but that was in more enlightened times when an Olympic gold really meant something other than an opening to wealth creation.

But inevitably the games became professional as the eastern block and others did not play fair and actual amateurs stood little chance against government sponsored athletes and government approved drug programs, not just the eastern block either.

As a track cyclist in the late fifties and sixties I was more than aware of the drug problem my sport had then and still has, though to be fair the testing in the sport today is almost non stop which is more than can be said for many other sports.

I did compete abroad a couple of times, and in those days even Olympians had to pay for travel in some sports, but few minded as the fact one was representing the country was reward enough. Not a lot of support then in fact virtually none; today for the current background team:

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/getinvolved/article/20181114-about-bc-static-British-Cycling-Talent-Development-Team-0?c=EN

The above was non existent in those days, never mind nutritional experts and help in all areas of mind and body on hand. It was as with so much a very different world.

Yet looking back I have more respect for the few successes we had then as they were against the odds, very much a case of surmounting difficulties that today would not be countenanced..

The going professional era changed all that in the Olympics and world championships in all other sports. Sponsorship pulled in money and the world of sport changed. Much was good as the artificial amateur was confined to the dustbin of history and everyone knew where they stood.

But back to the Olympics. This edition as with all has had its downsides, probably more than others recently, apart from the dreadful, on so many fronts, opening ceremony. Whole teams have been seeking hotel accommodation to avoid the cardboard beds, the supplied vegan meals have been supplemented with supplementary foods flown in in some cases, the Australians had a ton of meat flown in for instance, and several triathletes have become ill after competing with the merde in the Seine, and we have a boxing competition that has been totally hijacked by a couple of men fighting women, a ridiculous situation that should have been sorted in all sports long ago, only the woke agenda in some hierarchies of sporting institutions keep this nonsense alive.

There have been reams written about this subject, but in the end in a contact sport particularly, it is not only an advantage but dangerous, and of course you never see the reverse with women wanting to compete in male sport, I wonder why .

And to top it all the IOC seem determined to dilute the games by expanding into areas that are difficult to see as legitimate sports, such as break dancing? Strange rock climbing competitions, surely no rope should be allowed for realistic reasons, skateboarding at a time when the craze for skate parks for kids is waning and they become white elephants, BMX cycle racing which does not involve a lot of pedalling and the riders should grow up and ride proper bikes, downhill racing known as ‘gravity’, Golf, please, kite surfing where the only physical attribute is to gain weight that gives more speed, pie eating medals, trampoline etc etc.

There have and still are sports that have little in the way of promoting inclusion and diversity as is so popular these days. The equine events are hardly likely anytime soon to be seen in African countries are anywhere else, they are hugely expensive and confined to mainly rich western societies. They have their own championships anyway, so called new team events that involve numerous mixed men and women events by nature favour countries that have a depth of talent like the USA, smaller countries can never put together a team of equals from such limited resources.

They seem intent on diluting the games so a gold medal is within reach for all regardless of worthiness. Many will disagree with me but I would like the games to get back to basics, it is primarily a track and field event and so it should be.

I am not anti Olympics, far from it but it is straying far away from the original ideals and including what many would call ‘mickey mouse’ sports or what were recently leisure activities does the organisation and sport no favours.