02-26-2006, 04:49 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-26-2006, 05:02 PM by Occhidiangela.)
The Neo Olympics versus the Olympic Spirit
©Occhidiangela 26 Feb 2006
Sweden 3
Finland 2
Final score for the Men's Ice Hockey final. Gold Medal to Sweden. Skol. :D I saw bits and pieces as I puttered around the house this morning. The game seemed to live up to its billing.
In related news, appropriately named Apolo Ohno won wire-to-wire in the 500m without inciting controversy. The sports pages have, of course, chronicled a variety of neo-Olympic drama, from Italian police arresting Austrian Olympians to the dysfunctional relationships on the US speedskating team, to the Greek chorus of tooth gnashing pursuant Sasha Cohen's falling twice and "only" earning a sliver medal. Peggy Fleming wept; fall twice and still earn an Olympic medal? That gal's Good!
Now that the Men's Ice Hockey final's last seconds have ticked away, the Winter Olympics are over. Thank goodness, the over coverage of non-sports was getting to be wearisome.
Fortunately for sports fans, the Winter Olympics retain events that require objective scoring: a biatholon, a 50km ski race, speed skating, and games where goals are scored. That style of competition is in keeping with the spirit of the first ever Olympic Champion, Coroebus, who streaked to the original champion's rostrum in a 192-meter foot race. I don't 'think he'd recognize the current games, and certainly would not compete naked in the Winter Olympics. He'd also be confused when trying to figure out who won some events.
The acrobatic hot dog ski events, where aerials are the currency, are eye catching but remain tainted as judged performances, in true TV-era-gone-mad X-Games style. Likewise the ice events with the tearful and scantilly clad ladies, the over made-up men, and the political nuances of judging. Since I was a teenager, one of my cynical expressions of approval has been: "It rates a 10, which is an 8 to the East German Judge." Those talented performers of pure artistry in that power ballet on ice present a lovely display of grace and strength, but they fall short of the original Olympic ideal. Judged events can't help it, and the root cause is politics.
The judged events' political stain perfectly fits the neo-Olympic ideal, an ideal embedded in the 1896 Games and which is owed in part, like other facets of the modern world's roots, to both French Military Incompetence, and Monsieur Coubertin's combined vision and drive.
From the article: "France was overrun by the Germans during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Some believe that Coubertin attributed the defeat of France not to its military skills but rather to the French soldiers' lack of vigor. After examining the education of the German, British, and American children, Coubertin decided that it was exercise, more specifically sports, that made a well-rounded and vigorous person."
The resulting Imperial Olympic Games, founded in Europe's modern, competing Imperial era, are suitable companions to nationalism and deification, even worship, of The States that replaced The Empires. Isn't it ironic that an Emperor abolished a 1200 year old tradition during the Fourth Century AD? In 393 CE, the Roman emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, abolished the Games because of their pagan influences. The 1500 year gap had an impact on the Neo- Olympics' Origins.
It has come full circle, this modern worship of earthly physical perfection, the adoration of athletes dressed in skin tight space age suits, nearly nude, outfits that show off the body contours of magnificent physical specimens. At the shrine of the Nautilis machine, the hill run, and the swimming pool, physical perfection is worshipped, prayed for, and fanatically pursued. Tithes are collected via second and third order means, advertising and endorsement revenue, which cost is passed along in, among other things, 500 dollar bicycles and 100-200 dollar sneakers (thanks, Nike, Michael, Dan, and Dave ) that become fashion icons.
The corruption of the Neo Olympic spirit is perfectly reflected in the problem of performance enhancing drugs, the tests for them, the loopholes in the testing procedures, and the outright fraud perpetrated for the competitive edge. Ben Johnson was the tip of the iceberg, the Austrian Police yet another group playing catch up to human ingenuity finding ways to cheat and win, all in order to be "the best."
How do you know who is best, at least this year, this season? You play the match or run the race, and you see who wins. Or, so the ideal goes. The less glossy feature of sports competition, is its foundation in either a stylized contest of champions, faux war, or an excuse to gamble. My favorite sport, golf, is at root a gambling competition.
Understanding the root of sports competition, particularly the dual influence of war and gambling, makes the harsher side of the Olympics more understandable, if not more palatable. This dual feature is at odds with the veneer of altruism that the Olympic hype machine spray paints on all five Olympic logo-rings. At least with races and goal scoring games, the result is modestly objective, all drugs and corrupt referees considered.
For the artists -- for the synchronized swimmers, for the ice dancers -- I suggest another venue be chosen in an attempt to return the Neo Olympics to a closer fit with the original Olympian ideal. There are international championships annually for those art forms, let them rest there. The performance artistry is awe inspiring, as is the immense effort required to achieve those dazzling moves, but it isn't truly Olympic in spirit, it is not faux war, it is not something you can bet on -- unless you are betting on judges' preferences. The subjective and consistently arbitraty scoring serves the Neo Olympics as expanded territory for the contaminating influence of politics, of back room deals between officials, lawyers, and other parasites of the modern Imperial Age -- which also began in Europe, and hence the modern world that European Empires shaped.
The Olympics don't need the dancers and the artists, but the artists apparently need the Olympics. They wish to bask in the aura of glory indelibly tied to victory at battle, or at champions' duels, the glory of Olympic and athletic faux war. How sad that their annual artistic competitions don't suffice. Did Luciano Pavarotti ever need an Olympic Gold medal to confirm that he was the world's best tenor? ;)
In closing, I wonder what American sports journalist will write the sour grapes article decrying the Finnish and Swedish Ice Hockey teams, with the tired American complaint that the European or Scandanavian champions are somehow lesser athletic mortals than, for example, the last Olympic Basketball champions: Argentina. ;) The gang-of-soloists American Basketball Team, per the comments in a Spazbear's thread regarding US and Canadian Olympic Hockey, failed to do what successful national teams do: focus on We, instead of on Me, when preparing for the battles of Olympic faux war.
The focus on We, and the shared struggle to the highest peak of the Olympic Mountain to grab the golden palm in the battle of champions is a metpahor for a company of men storming and capturing a hill in a battle. In this faux war of Olympic sports it remains, due to the team factor, the purest fusion of the Olympic spirit as the battle of humble champions in a match objectively scored and won per the Olympic's original premise.
It is a fitting climax to the Turin Winter Olympics, so I doff my cap to the Sewedish Hockey Team: Olympic champions in the finest and truest sense.
Occhi
©Occhidiangela 26 Feb 2006
Sweden 3
Finland 2
Final score for the Men's Ice Hockey final. Gold Medal to Sweden. Skol. :D I saw bits and pieces as I puttered around the house this morning. The game seemed to live up to its billing.
In related news, appropriately named Apolo Ohno won wire-to-wire in the 500m without inciting controversy. The sports pages have, of course, chronicled a variety of neo-Olympic drama, from Italian police arresting Austrian Olympians to the dysfunctional relationships on the US speedskating team, to the Greek chorus of tooth gnashing pursuant Sasha Cohen's falling twice and "only" earning a sliver medal. Peggy Fleming wept; fall twice and still earn an Olympic medal? That gal's Good!
Now that the Men's Ice Hockey final's last seconds have ticked away, the Winter Olympics are over. Thank goodness, the over coverage of non-sports was getting to be wearisome.
Fortunately for sports fans, the Winter Olympics retain events that require objective scoring: a biatholon, a 50km ski race, speed skating, and games where goals are scored. That style of competition is in keeping with the spirit of the first ever Olympic Champion, Coroebus, who streaked to the original champion's rostrum in a 192-meter foot race. I don't 'think he'd recognize the current games, and certainly would not compete naked in the Winter Olympics. He'd also be confused when trying to figure out who won some events.
The acrobatic hot dog ski events, where aerials are the currency, are eye catching but remain tainted as judged performances, in true TV-era-gone-mad X-Games style. Likewise the ice events with the tearful and scantilly clad ladies, the over made-up men, and the political nuances of judging. Since I was a teenager, one of my cynical expressions of approval has been: "It rates a 10, which is an 8 to the East German Judge." Those talented performers of pure artistry in that power ballet on ice present a lovely display of grace and strength, but they fall short of the original Olympic ideal. Judged events can't help it, and the root cause is politics.
The judged events' political stain perfectly fits the neo-Olympic ideal, an ideal embedded in the 1896 Games and which is owed in part, like other facets of the modern world's roots, to both French Military Incompetence, and Monsieur Coubertin's combined vision and drive.
From the article: "France was overrun by the Germans during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Some believe that Coubertin attributed the defeat of France not to its military skills but rather to the French soldiers' lack of vigor. After examining the education of the German, British, and American children, Coubertin decided that it was exercise, more specifically sports, that made a well-rounded and vigorous person."
The resulting Imperial Olympic Games, founded in Europe's modern, competing Imperial era, are suitable companions to nationalism and deification, even worship, of The States that replaced The Empires. Isn't it ironic that an Emperor abolished a 1200 year old tradition during the Fourth Century AD? In 393 CE, the Roman emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, abolished the Games because of their pagan influences. The 1500 year gap had an impact on the Neo- Olympics' Origins.
It has come full circle, this modern worship of earthly physical perfection, the adoration of athletes dressed in skin tight space age suits, nearly nude, outfits that show off the body contours of magnificent physical specimens. At the shrine of the Nautilis machine, the hill run, and the swimming pool, physical perfection is worshipped, prayed for, and fanatically pursued. Tithes are collected via second and third order means, advertising and endorsement revenue, which cost is passed along in, among other things, 500 dollar bicycles and 100-200 dollar sneakers (thanks, Nike, Michael, Dan, and Dave ) that become fashion icons.
The corruption of the Neo Olympic spirit is perfectly reflected in the problem of performance enhancing drugs, the tests for them, the loopholes in the testing procedures, and the outright fraud perpetrated for the competitive edge. Ben Johnson was the tip of the iceberg, the Austrian Police yet another group playing catch up to human ingenuity finding ways to cheat and win, all in order to be "the best."
How do you know who is best, at least this year, this season? You play the match or run the race, and you see who wins. Or, so the ideal goes. The less glossy feature of sports competition, is its foundation in either a stylized contest of champions, faux war, or an excuse to gamble. My favorite sport, golf, is at root a gambling competition.
Understanding the root of sports competition, particularly the dual influence of war and gambling, makes the harsher side of the Olympics more understandable, if not more palatable. This dual feature is at odds with the veneer of altruism that the Olympic hype machine spray paints on all five Olympic logo-rings. At least with races and goal scoring games, the result is modestly objective, all drugs and corrupt referees considered.
For the artists -- for the synchronized swimmers, for the ice dancers -- I suggest another venue be chosen in an attempt to return the Neo Olympics to a closer fit with the original Olympian ideal. There are international championships annually for those art forms, let them rest there. The performance artistry is awe inspiring, as is the immense effort required to achieve those dazzling moves, but it isn't truly Olympic in spirit, it is not faux war, it is not something you can bet on -- unless you are betting on judges' preferences. The subjective and consistently arbitraty scoring serves the Neo Olympics as expanded territory for the contaminating influence of politics, of back room deals between officials, lawyers, and other parasites of the modern Imperial Age -- which also began in Europe, and hence the modern world that European Empires shaped.
The Olympics don't need the dancers and the artists, but the artists apparently need the Olympics. They wish to bask in the aura of glory indelibly tied to victory at battle, or at champions' duels, the glory of Olympic and athletic faux war. How sad that their annual artistic competitions don't suffice. Did Luciano Pavarotti ever need an Olympic Gold medal to confirm that he was the world's best tenor? ;)
In closing, I wonder what American sports journalist will write the sour grapes article decrying the Finnish and Swedish Ice Hockey teams, with the tired American complaint that the European or Scandanavian champions are somehow lesser athletic mortals than, for example, the last Olympic Basketball champions: Argentina. ;) The gang-of-soloists American Basketball Team, per the comments in a Spazbear's thread regarding US and Canadian Olympic Hockey, failed to do what successful national teams do: focus on We, instead of on Me, when preparing for the battles of Olympic faux war.
The focus on We, and the shared struggle to the highest peak of the Olympic Mountain to grab the golden palm in the battle of champions is a metpahor for a company of men storming and capturing a hill in a battle. In this faux war of Olympic sports it remains, due to the team factor, the purest fusion of the Olympic spirit as the battle of humble champions in a match objectively scored and won per the Olympic's original premise.
It is a fitting climax to the Turin Winter Olympics, so I doff my cap to the Sewedish Hockey Team: Olympic champions in the finest and truest sense.
Occhi
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
