archives

Every time the Olympics are held (winter or summer), I'm excited to watch whatever I can of the events. I am awed by the athleticism and dedication of these athletes to push themselves to become the best in the world. I believe that these games are important because they bring the world together for a unified cause, even if just for a few weeks, and they show that we can be a global community who support the common ideals of hard work, dedication, sportsmanship and civic pride.

Of course, after a few days or so into the competition, I realize that I'm at heart a sentimentalist and idealist, and the beliefs I have about the importance of good sportsmanship, unity and a global community coming together are actually a bunch of crap, and the athletes or the coaches are actually a bunch of whiny babies. It seems like every day when I get on the internets, all I see are articles about who's mad at whom, who's thrown their medals in the garbage or at others, and who's questioning the validity of one team or another.

I give you the following articles, just from the past 24 hours:
Blake Rips Foe After Olympics Tennis Loss

The Olympics' Age Old Problem

Wrestling Deals with New Allegations of Corruption

Considering these have come from only the past 24 hours, and I'm not watching the coverage online all that closely, this is quite a bit of bitching. And these are just the headlines showing up on Yahoo. I can't only imagine what I'd find if I went digging. I guess the answer to the age-old question of 'can't we all just get along' is 'no'.