Friday 27 July 2012

I love the Olympics...

****

Corruption, favouritism, private roads, brand fascism, a naff logo, oppresive security and bureaucratic incompentance - for the past couple of weeks the news has been filled with the impending disaster that will be the London Olympics.

Ever curmudgeon, cynic and hater of sport has sprung to life selecting his or her special example of the Olympic scandal. It has been a pleasure to read hundreds of blogs and thousands of tweet bemoaning the waste of money, the indulgence and the arrogance of the Olympic organisation.

But for me, all this has to be set against the truth - thousands of athletes who have trained for years for the honour of coming to London, one of the world's greatest cities, to compete in the Olympic Games. Less the big names, the top sprinters, the tennis stars, the football players, and more the lesser sports, the ones that get no attention in a world dominated by football - tae kwan do, archery, shooting, sailing, mucking about in canoes and  swashbuckling with swords.

Every four years we turn away from the normal round of sports and look instead at a difference collection of inspiring athletes, men and women who will do there best - even the ones who know they've no real chance of a medal. We'll see tears, smiles, rage, excitement and sheer exhaustion. And - for all our cynicism - we'll love the spectacle and marvel at the talent displayed. This is what the Olympics are about.

I hate the controlling nature of the organisation, if I never have to see Seb Coe again it may improve my temper. But I don't care. I love the Olympics and relish that these games are in my country - England - and in the city where I was raised - London.

So let the games begin. And I for one intend to enjoy - to savour - every bit that I can of these London Olympics.

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3 comments:

Barman said...

So you think it is worth pissing away VAST amounts of much needed cash and inconveniencing millions to watch a bit of sport that you would never (ex Olympics) watch?

Anonymous said...

What Barman said.

Mrs Anon is a nurse and her travel to work will be a nightmare. I'm not a nurse so I can work from home in extremis - a luxury most cannot afford.

We are paying for bread and circuses through taxes. Some nice Indian professor piped up in the ES that the amount was derisory compared to what has already been squandered.

I don't know which poly employs this nincompoop, but what is it you are meant to do when you are in a deep hole?

Perhaps if the banking sector was allowed to thrive, we might get somewhere. Instead, they have been ostracised and made scapegoats.

Ivan D said...

Agreed Simon. it is a shame that some people don't understand that by joining the "cost to the public " brigade" they are aligning themselves with those who talk about smoking, eating and alcohol consumption in terms of its cost to the NHS. it is essentially the same argument and the same killjoys who make it.