A Cynical Look at the Olympics

Here come the Olympics again, whether you like it or not.  These are not only the most talented and fanatically dedicated athletes in the world.  Were only that the case, I might approach the "five loops" with more enthusiasm than I have.  No, the exalted participants in the games are pretty much FULL-TIME athletes, either professionals in their sport or sponsored by others so that they can avoid the "distraction" of having to go to work and earn a living like the rest of us average plebeians.  That is what's got my goat about the games.  And don't even start with the rampant jingoistic nationalism permeating them...

Take the men's basketball event.  The U.S. "dream team", which was to feature NBA pro multimillionaire standouts like Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard, and Blake Griffin, has been rife with injuries, causing concern among some about their chances to win a gold medal.  As if I care about these professionals masquerading as amateurs for a few weeks!  And what about this Michael Phelps, filthy rich over his endorsement deals and commercial appearances, devoting his full time and resources to again being the best swimmer in the world?  Doesn't sound like a level playing field (or pool, or court) to me!

I never did like it back during the Cold War when the communist bloc countries like the Soviet Union and East Germany would use de facto professional athletes, training them full-time in their events and giving them phony job titles to allow them to pass as "amateurs", back when the Olympics actually pretended to care about amateurism in sports.  So those countries won more medals.  But instead of curtailing the problem, it was allowed to spread by essentially professionalizing all of the participants.  So the idea that somebody could work at a productive, meaningful job in a market-based economy and still train and make the team is sadly forever gone...unless, of course, that paid job is the sport itself.  These athletes on TV, these "Olympians", are not like you or me: they are both elites and elitists, and frankly I have no desire to follow or care about whether they win, place, show, or completely lose out in their precious god-awful, important (to them) events...

...on the other hand, it is always fun to observe how a particular sport is played, even if everyone at the "highest" level appear to perform almost like clones of each other.  It makes me want to just sit there this fall and watch Tim Tebow at quarterback, complete with his oddball, inefficient, but somehow winning technique, but HIS technique nevertheless...