Other than the fact that the Beijing Olympics of 2008 were one of the most corrupt games I’ve ever watched [I'm only 31] because I love so many athletes from so many countries and am simply a die hard sports fan I still couldn’t pull away.
I am more than pleased with the entire Canadian team. I was going to write a rant during the Olympics asking people to shut the fuck up about our lack of medals in the first week, I was about done listening to people around me and the media not to mention the CBC commentators speak negatively about our athletes, the commentators weren’t so much saying negative things as they were just talking in agro voices, it was annoying.
WHO in Canada doesn’t know that we are a winter sports country? I wish we were an all sports country but it will never happen, sure because all eyes are now on us the Canadian athletes will probably get more money for a few years maybe enough for us to grab upwards of twenty medals in London 2012 but after London things will go right back to exactly how they are which is pathetic. If the country isn’t going to support the athletes properly then stop bitching when they only achieve like the most personal bests and Canadian records in maybe ever. Seriously people HOW could that not have been good enough? Breaking a PB is one of the best feelings EVER I can’t even imagine how insane it would be to spend your life training for something, perform your very best, break what WAS your very best and have it NOT be good enough for your country. Disappointment and being tired of seeing only personal bests and Canadian records fall are two different things.
I’m already annoyed by all of the talk of topping the Beijing Olympics, the big one being the opening ceremonies. Ok – what? So you want us to put on a computer generated fireworks extravaganza, destroy a young girl’s confidence probably for life with a bullshit lip-syncing so called pretty girl, you want us to fake the age of some of our athletes robbing the rightful owners of their gold medals AND you want us to have even worse corruption than was just demonstrated over the last two plus weeks?
Unless nothing else is on, hardly anyone watches the Olympics anymore. What, with the drugs and the mockery being made of the judged sports. I know that both have always been there, always been a problem and not just at the Olympics but what I don’t understand is why we don’t do anything about it.
When it comes to how Vancouver is treating its people we are right on up there with the Chinese. I don’t think we’ve torn down any homes that people actually own and were living in yet but it’s probably coming. All I could think watching the pre shows on how the middle class and lower class and homeless were being treated in Beijing was what I’m sure most Vancouverites were thinking – OH FUCK. When your city is known world wide for its homeless problem, the east side, skid row, whatever you want to call it you really would think the government would want to do more than try and HIDE the problem but dreaming is probably still free for a reason.
It got to the point with the judged sports that we had to start watching them in moderation to keep tempers calm. I am a lover of many athletes from many many countries it is hard for even me to keep track of them all, so I am not just talking about Canada when I say the judging in my opinion was the worst we’ve seen this century, I can’t see it being the worst ever but it’s up there. And I am sorry but it may take the full eight years they have to find out what they are on but all of the Jamaican male sprinters are drugged out, they use better Visine than Ben Johnson did but yay, if it was only Bolt that was fast that would be one thing but the ENTIRE team. If you watched the Olympics, think back to Phelps, notice the natural progression of his stamina his endurance level, the boy looked tired you could tell he was working his ass off and then some. Bolt and his boys were show boating cruisers. Everything and everyone is faster and stronger in this day and age but not that much.
Out of curiosity I thought out loud “I wonder how many of China’s gold medals were in judged sports”. Turns out to be approximately half of their 51, in Athens as a nation they won 63 medals in TOTAL. But to be fair let’s compare with another power house, let’s compare with the United States. Of their 36 gold medals in Beijing approximately 3 of them were a result of judged sports. In total The States won 110 medals, in Athens they won 102. Seems like a natural progression of improvement to me. Something just isn’t right with how many judged golds China won and the fact that they went from a total of 63 medals to a total of 100 at their own games.
I personally have a bigger problem with corruption in the judging than I do with the drugs, but please do not get me wrong I have MAJOR issues with both. At least with drugs when you are caught you not only embarrass yourself you shame your entire country. You are stripped of your medal. You have to live with what you did forever. You are marked forever. In my opinion if you are caught once with drugs you should NEVER be able to compete again, screw a suspension. And I agree with my father who thinks if one of them is caught doing drugs the whole team should be sent home. That would put a stop to it all pretty fast.
It really bothers me that sports like softball are being removed from the Olympics yet NOTHING is being done to change judged sports or stop the corruption.
For example, WHY does gymnastics even need judges anymore? Why not take the maximum score have exact deductions for falls, misses, step outs, incompletion of compulsory moves and add em up at the end and then the person who has the least amount of mistakes and did all the moves gets the gold. I guess that would be too complicated.
It wasn’t all bad and there were some very touching moments, moments that were my favourite just like I have from every Olympics I remember watching. I don’t know why but my favourite moment of all was when Ian Thorpe turned around and gave Mrs. Phelps a hug after Michael won yet another gold. I thought that was pretty good.
