advertisement


The Olympics 2020/1 Japan.

chartz said:
I’ve always thought nationalism is a stupid thing. France don’t win, the players do, the athlete does.
I don’t feel proud of my country when they win, that’s silly.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I’ve never understood tribalism, my brain just isn’t wired that way at all. I’ve never supported a ‘team’ (or political party etc). Strangers often look at me in disbelief when they ask me “what is your football team?” in pub smalltalk or whatever and I reply that I’ve never had one. I had no interest as a kid, I have no interest now. I admire and enjoy watching skill, so I enjoy things like skateboarding, gymnastics, cycling, snooker etc, but I don’t care what country wins, just that it’s a friendly and honest event and the best performance is recognised. I’ve always viewed it more like music or art. The competition is the least interesting aspect, and where someone is from is irrelevant. It is the one thing they can not control, so why focus on it?!
 
Exactly Tony: I often get that “what’s your favourite team” – not even mentioning they mean football of course!
They are always taken aback – to say the least – when I invariably answer, “may the best team win” :rolleyes:
 
To comment on some of what has been said:

The Olympics have been a commercial venture for many years, but I think it was LA 84 thqt first made a profit;

The is no amateur sport these days, TV rights, sponsorship - individual and team, and Lottery funding put that to bed decades ago;

The Olympics should not continue to admit any sport that requires a panel of judges to determine who wins. Higher, Faster, stronger is enough for me.

Tribalism is easy to understand as is Toryism. That is not to say that understanding implies acceptance or support.
 
Most countries tend to focus on coverage of their own athletes with medal chances, plus coverage of the big events (20, marathon, etc.). “Big” countries obsess about the medals table. The nice aspect of being in a “small” country is you get a bit less of that sort of stuff and a bit more coverage of everything else. The US coverage of the LA Olympics was OTT, borderline nauseating; living in Finland was great (once you’d watched their blokes throw the javelin etc.). I wonder what China’s coverage is like.
 
Tony L said:
It is the scale of the gulf that gets me. As an example we have Andy Murray, who I understand to be our top professional tennis player competing. I’m speculating here, I know nothing about tennis, but surely he has to be a multi-millionaire by now? I assume he has professional contracts, sponsorships etc amounting to hundreds of thousands a year, the very best training and medical support money can buy etc, so I don’t understand how that is fair to competitors who no doubt haven’t. It almost feels like comparing Jeff Bezos to the bloke who owns the local corner shop.

PS I’ve just googled Murray and apparently he has a net worth of $165m.
Click to expand...
Pretty much all of the tennis players competing will be on the circuit & the better ones will be rather wealthy. I do think there is a debate to be had whether such sports are relevant to the Olympics when it is not the pinnacle of the discipline. Other examples would be golf, football, basketball etc.
 
Cav hit the nail on the head.
It should be higher, faster, stronger and no judging needed.
 
Grace Kelly's father, a self-made man who became moderately rich in building, was American single sculls champion and Olympic champion. But his entry for the Diamond Sculls was rejected because he was not a "gentleman," having started life as a brick layer and being suspected of having rowed professionally as a waterman. Those were the days!
 
I can remember the hypocrisy of rugby union’s amateur status and the gentlemen and players entrances at cricket.
 
PaulMB said:
Grace Kelly's father, a self-made man who became moderately rich in building, was American single sculls champion and Olympic champion. But his entry for the Diamond Sculls was rejected because he was not a "gentleman," having started life as a brick layer and being suspected of having rowed professionally as a waterman. Those were the days!
Click to expand...

Talking of sculls, the quote of the day for me came from one of the GB two-man team when asked something like ‘what has been the overall team strategy and preparation?’ “basically trying not to row like an idiot!”.
 
Watched the lads on the skateboards, never interested me when they were fashionable but I always enjoyed the spills. The Olympic skaters are the same, some great tricks but some epic spills as well. The silly yank who was "Freaking Stoked" after he fell off was the best. It was entertaining but it's not sport.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top