On the Beijing Olympiad

I have ignored, as much as I can, the Beijing Olympics. Ignoring them totally is impossible as they receive front page coverage instead of being relegated to the sports pages where they belong with all of the other professional sports news.

There was a time when I enjoyed watching the amateur Olympic competition. The decision, however, to employ professional athletes to compete on behalf of the United States put an end to amateur athletics. Therefore, now we have professional national teams competing for national glory. The bluster about the Olympics being non-political is hogwash. Amateur athletics disappeared when it was decided that the US amateurs could not compete on a level playing field with the athletes from the Russian, and East German Armies. The commies were cheating, their athletes were supported by the state, so it was decided that the US would use professionals and “show ‘em by god” that our culture, government and people are better because we win more medals.

There was an opportunity that the end of the cold war would end the nationalistic focus of the games but it didn’t. We gloated when the former USSR athletes were representing independent Balkan and Caucasus countries changing the makeup and strength of the Russian team. The East German super race athletes were absorbed into Germany with it’s laissez-faire attitude toward everything sports and nationalism except the FIFA World Cup. Our nationalistic view of the games simply increased, as our money bought more medals.

I don’t begrudge the competitors, but their place is in the realm of entertainment nothing more. Actors, musicians, professional athletes; are media worthy and able to sell advertizing but that’s it. Entertainment is only entertainment. To Level the value, when an actor wins an Academy Award or a musician wins a Grammy, we should be taking national credit for their accomplishment raise the flag and play the national anthem.