The historically scandal-plagued jingoistic non-event that is the Olympic Games has moved from ridiculous to insane, as this article describing the preliminaries used for team selection points out.
Perhaps there's a kind of warped normality that drives athletes to devote a major portion of their lives to the pursuit of global success in some little known or contested "sport" like sailing, sport climbing and trampoline. Go ahead, without touching the mouse or key board tell me who was the last trampoline gold medalist. Nevertheless, these are Olympic events and people diligently train for them. Having a medal awarded by the IOC hanging in the cubical or den certainly beats a picture of the dog or cat.
In this particular Olympic Games, to be held in Japan, the festival encounters three different forms of weirdness, the Olympic committee itself, a kind of internationally endorsed criminal enterprise, the official government responses to the pandemic and the unique culture that is Japan.
These three factors have made this edition of the games so warped that any athlete willing to accept the conditions for competition must be regarded as mentally ill. As for the international horde of television spectators, pull the plug and engage in some athletics personally.
No comments:
Post a Comment