Thus Endeth Another Winter Olympics

[Wyrm]

I've never thought of the Olympics as faux war or something to gamble on with the only sports worth showing are the ones you can gamble on. Yes, that's where the tradition started, but over the years it's evolved into the modern version that we now have. The best athletes from around the world gather under one banner in the spirit of fair play and competition. It's true that the judged events are more susceptible to corruption than the non-judged ones, but only to a certain extent. What happens when the ice hockey ref gets paid off to call penalties more rigidly for one team and loosely for the other? Or when the speed skating officials are paid off to disqualify someone for a pass that isn't actually illegal but close enough? They're appealed, brought to the IOC for review, and then corrected, just the same way that the judged events are. To say that the judged sports don't have any place in the Olympics because they aren't war-like and can't be gambled on is contrary to what the modern Olympics are about. Baron de Coubertin wanted to see the finest athletes in the world gathered under a banner of truce and fair play, not with the mindset to watch them beat each other into submission so people could heckle and throw money on them.

Pavarotti never needed an Olympic medal because he was just a performer and entertainer. The Ice Dancers and Syncronized Swimmers do more than that. They combine the aesthetic beauty of dance and the physical endurance of sport. Pavarotti was never judged on how well he moved or how he could interpret a piece of music with rhythmic movements, moving in synch with a partner. All that mattered for him was the quality of his voice. It's obvious that the ice dancers have to do more than just skate in circles doing moves. The couples who either just showed athleticism or their ability to dance finished at the bottom of the ladder. The ones who combined both to put on a show of grace and athleticism are the ones who finished on top, even if their routines weren't perfect. Whether or not they embody the ancient tradition of warfare doesn't matter anymore.

To me the biggest slap in the face to the Olympic spirit is when companies like Exxon Mobile or VISA use them to advertise themselves; the ones who make billions by ripping people off. That goes against the meaning and spirit of the Olympics more than anything else.

Side note: Hearing that Avril Lavigne was going to be in the closing ceremonies was one of the biggest disappointments I've heard in a long time. Bocelli I can understand. Her I can't even come close to figuring out what the Torino planners were thinking... the only thing that comes close to starting to make sense is that she was on the bottom of a very long list of other performers who weren't available, and even then I don't know what she was doing on the list to begin with.