Olympian Conflictedness

As I write this, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia have begun. The opening ceremonies aren't until later in the day today (Friday), but somehow events are already underway. This year the games are especially marred by politics and controversy. It seems worse than it was in Beijing, where it was not inconsiderable. There's also the actual series of athletic competitions, and I guess I have thoughts on both of those things.

I've always enjoyed the winter games. It's funny to me that people consider them lesser than the summer games. The winter events are admittedly more obscure to Americans on the whole, and the entire event is a smaller, quainter affair (which is also anathema to spectacle-minded Americans), but I don't really see how those are bad things. I like a smaller, more manageable Olympics. Maybe that's just my personality.

Hot House

By now the Olympics have been on long enough that many have probably grown tired of sports for their own sake and are ready to have the proceedings spiced up with some salacious, slanderous stories. Well, let me step into the void there. At the outset, I had read about some rather spectacular things that are supposed to be going on in the Olympic Village. They say that the athletes are rather amorous, if you take my meaning. That is to say that they are having a lot of sex.

This is evidently no secret to anyone, and least of all to organizers who provide each athlete with an allotment of condoms, which have been known to run out. The organizers really are astonishingly understanding, and declare that the matter is none of their business. I guess that I endorse that attitude, although not every nation involved is apt to feel that way. I wonder if there are some tense relations between roommates and neighbors as a result.

Ideals

Most of the Olympic games distracts you from what's supposed to be the true mission of the whole enterprise. It's a big money-making endeavor sponsored by businesses like Coca-Cola and McDonald's. Professionals compete in many of the sports. Performance enhancing-drugs and other such gamesmanship will never be completely absent from the thing. You hear people on television rhapsodizing about the ideals of sport, and it just sounds sappy.

It's true even in spite of everything, or at least I think so. I believe in what the Olympics does, or what it can do. I believe in the importance of sports to help us always strive to push further out the physical limits of the human body. Why should we only seek to improve ourselves by means of intellect? The species ought always to be growing stronger, faster and capable of leaping higher. There's a lot of side show, but the Games do that.

Remembering When

The 2012 Summer Games in London have begun, and I'm not too cool to watch. I enjoy the Olympics quite a bit, really. You can rely on me writing about them as they go, though I wouldn't get my hopes up about specifics from the events day to day. No, I'm more of an unbalanced George Will: I never have played the sports myself but love chattering on and on about deeper meaning and peripheral societal issues that the games touch on.
I was thinking about how the Olympics serve well to mark time. Setting aside the Winter Games, we are left with an extravaganza that takes place once every four years, and it's indelible enough of a memory each time that you can remember a lot of the circumstances in which each one happened. I can only go back so far myself. For me it starts with the games of Barcelona, but my memories of that are admittedly hazy, as I was just a boy in 1992. I remember the Dream Team well enough, but it more or less ends there.

The Games

For many people, including a great deal of those I know, the appeal of athletics (either the playing or watching thereof) is elusive. I don't claim to have any conclusive findings on why that is, but I do have some thoughts on the matter. Now, this does not regard those who enjoy some athletic disciplines but not others- who is not to be counted in that number? What interests me enough to attempt an understanding of is that person who either actively dislikes athletics or is apathetic towards them.

My ruminations first went towards youth and one's time in educational institutions. One might turn against sports or fail to be drawn into them due to the manner in which they were raised. If one is taught disinterest or dislike of the thing by the word or deed of their parents, I can imagine that attitude remaining for life. For me my fervent passions in this area of interest first sprung from my parents.