It’s an Olympic year and thousands of mostly young athletes have marched into Brazil with varying degrees of expectation that they will leave as medalists and, Zeus willing, gold medalists. The IOC, the very, very profitable governing body of both the summer and winter every-four-year testosterone frenzy, has honed the intent of the ancient origin of these games into a well-oiled cash machine, (did I mention, profitable?).
The original Greek games invited men, (only men), to compete in events of speed and strength and endurance and honored the winners with cheering, treats and wreaths of laurel. There were no other competing nations and, (except, perhaps, for the cost of the treats and the wreaths), no allusions to a monetary, (Gold, Silver, Bronze), equivalent to the prizes.
The reimagined, modern Olympic Games began in 1896 due to one French baron’s fascination with ancient Greece. It was fashioned more closely after the popular and unapologetically profitable World’s Fair model than its Athenian namesake and was, from its inception steeped in a tradition of inciting unnecessary and illogical nationalistic competition. Over 120 years and now into its XXXIst incarnation, the emphasis on nationalism and the real and implied promise of fiscal reward has bred the most shamefully unsportsman-like conduct; doping, cheating, (other than doping), even the Tanya-Harding of an opponent. Cities vie in the most cut-throat fashion to win a hosting nod, potentially worth millions, and sponsors buy and sell the rights to athlete’s backs, butts, shoes, socks, headbands and both permanent and temporarily inked portions of skin.
Sure, the jaw-dropping, super-human performances by the runners and jumpers and swimmers are no less than…jaw-dropping, but they’re clouded by a constant medal race tote board obsession, horribly uninformed commentary and blatant, sport-contrary commercialism. Why do we have to add so many layers of crap to something as pure as an individual’s quest, (all those team things really don’t have any place in the Olympics), to be the best at something? Oh, I know…gold.