The Future of The Olympics

[stinkubus]

Sure, but the spirit upon which the modern games are founded is antithetical to innate competitive nature of sports in general.

Not really. The rules for just about every sport now contested have changed, but the original incarnation of the modern Olympiad insisted that all athletes be amateurs. People who, after winning, were found to have accepted pay in exchange for any sort of athletic contest were stripped of their medals. The games intentionally excluded many of the world's best and highest profile athletes.

 

[Arwon]

A good example of the distinction is tennis. In the Grand Slams you're competing for yourself. In the Davis Cup you're representing your country('s tennis governing body).

We probably do put way too much emphasis on the national competition in the Olympics and not enough on the individual competition. It's not a World Cup.

If nothing else it leads to dumb jingoistic coverage.

 

[metalhead]

I don't think you really understand the extent of the problem. It's not just graft, waste, and corruption. People living in the areas that the Olympics descend on get absolutely shafted. It is a serious injustice and handwaving like this it is kind of gross tbh. Start by pushing for mechanisms by which at least some of the wealth created by the Olympics goes to benefit the "losers" of the Olympics.

But this is a known problem with infrastructure in general. What's odd is painting this as an Olympics issue, and not a worldwide, constant injustice in how infrastructure improvements are carried out.

Like I said, the Olympics are ultimately very small potatoes. The ways in which they are bad are merely typical of daily injustices and corruption. The Olympics maybe serve as a good, high-profile example, but I'd rather spend my energy, say, pushing for schools to teach the interstate highway system as a systematic tool of injustice against the poor and minorities.

 

[Lexicus]

What's odd is painting this as an Olympics issue, and not a worldwide, constant injustice in how infrastructure improvements are carried out.

It's not odd at all because the Olympics are a particularly egregious example, because the Olympics assume a pose of high-minded principle, and because the Olympics is something almost everyone pays attention to.

Like I said, the Olympics are ultimately very small potatoes.

Billions of dollars of small potatoes.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

What a lovely example of South Korean sportsmanship.

Not.

How DARE a Canadian woman advance to the bronze medal because of a Korean woman's aggressive (and illegal) action in one of the short-track speed skating events?

The last 24 hours for Canadian short-track speed skater Kim Boutin have been full of emotional ups and downs, but ended with a touching ceremony at the Medals Plaza on Wednesday in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The 23-year-old's tumultuous saga began Tuesday when she captured her first Olympic medal in the women's 500-metre final. What should have been a moment of pride and celebration quickly turned sour, as Korean fans subjected the Sherbrooke, Que., native to online abuse via her social media channels.

They were incensed after South Korean skater Choi Min-jeong, who finished second, was disqualified for interference — bumping Boutin up from fourth to third. It's not an uncommon occurrence in a discipline that sees skaters racing in such proximity, but the onus is on the passer to avoid inappropriate contact, something the judges determined Choi failed to do.

"International Skating Union [ISU] firmly believes there is no place for harassment and abuse in sport , including through cyber and online channels," one of the organization's officials told CBC News.

Charming.

 

[Sommerswerd]

UK, how dare you win back to back golds in a single event in the Winter Olympics... I thought we had a deal?!?

 

[Traitorfish]

But this is a known problem with infrastructure in general. What's odd is painting this as an Olympics issue, and not a worldwide, constant injustice in how infrastructure improvements are carried out.

Like I said, the Olympics are ultimately very small potatoes. The ways in which they are bad are merely typical of daily injustices and corruption. The Olympics maybe serve as a good, high-profile example, but I'd rather spend my energy, say, pushing for schools to teach the interstate highway system as a systematic tool of injustice against the poor and minorities.

 

[metalhead]

It's not odd at all because the Olympics are a particularly egregious example, because the Olympics assume a pose of high-minded principle, and because the Olympics is something almost everyone pays attention to.

Billions of dollars of small potatoes.

But this is like being against infrastructure spending because the poor get screwed.

When they expand airports, replace aging bridges and roads, build new bypasses and pipelines and rail right-of-ways - who do you think gets "shafted?" Who is going to get displaced? And that's on orders of magnitudes in the tens of trillions worldwide. Picking on the Olympics seems gratuitous.

 

[stinkubus]

High profile events like the Olympics are more easily able to get people's attention. If one wanted to raise awareness of the issues using events like the Olympics or World Cup is going to be way more effective then trying to explain the consequences that resulted from building an interstate off ramp in some random location.

 

[Lexicus]

But this is like being against infrastructure spending because the poor get screwed.

No it isn't, because you're just ignoring that I already stated I am for looking at how to reduce the harm the Olympics inflicts. I can conceive of an Olympics without all these problems, you already said you can't. That you literally can't imagine a world where development decisions aren't made so that capitalists can extract wealth already makes my point for me.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

No it isn't, because you're just ignoring that I already stated I am for looking at how to reduce the harm the Olympics inflicts. I can conceive of an Olympics without all these problems, you already said you can't. That you literally can't imagine a world where development decisions aren't made so that capitalists can extract wealth already makes my point for me.

I can imagine such a world. Unfortunately the only way that vision comes to fruition is through the benevolently despotic rule of Lexicus the First, and like all other benevolent despots the dubiousness of your succession scheme keeps me from really getting behind this alternative.

 

[Lexicus]

Unfortunately the only way that vision comes to fruition is through the benevolently despotic rule of Lexicus the First, and like all other benevolent despots the dubiousness of your succession scheme keeps me from really getting behind this alternative.

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated into the collective

(the succession scheme is to incorporate all humans into the hive mind controlled by me)

 

[Hrothbern]

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated into the collective

Only team sports are to stay in the Olympics

 

[Lexicus]

Look even the Atlantic is wise to the Olympics:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/ban-the-olympics/553250/?utm_source=atlfb

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Even Canadian newscasters say ignorant things about other Canadians.

During the 1988 Olympics, Calgary put on a special rodeo event for the benefit of international visitors who wanted some sort of Stampede experience, even though the Stampede normally happens in July. So they set up a small-scale indoor rodeo, and I remember watching the CTV news one night... when the highly-paid, professional anchor Lloyd Robertson announced with a perfectly straight face, that one of the rodeo events that day had been ladies' barrel wrestling.

My impression is that nobody in the newsroom batted an eye. But everybody in Alberta fell off their chairs laughing (literally, in my case).

Is there a "nonplussed" emote?

 

[Sommerswerd]

Is there a "nonplussed" emote?

Here ya go:

 

[metalhead]

No it isn't, because you're just ignoring that I already stated I am for looking at how to reduce the harm the Olympics inflicts. I can conceive of an Olympics without all these problems, you already said you can't. That you literally can't imagine a world where development decisions aren't made so that capitalists can extract wealth already makes my point for me.

I never said I can't conceive of it. I said there isn't anything realistically to be done about it. What I meant by that was that there is nothing which can be done about it without solving the far larger problem of the poor who are displaced in the name of "progress" in every corner of the globe, on a daily basis.

Solve that problem, and the Olympics will no longer present it, either.

Look even the Atlantic is wise to the Olympics:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/ban-the-olympics/553250/?utm_source=atlfb

Yeah, the Sochi games emboldening Putin to annex Crimea feels like a bit of a stretch to me. Likewise the housing squeeze in Vancouver before 2010 being blamed on the Olympics seems like a ridiculous conclusion when you consider Vancouver is currently seeing a massive housing squeeze as well, complete with xenophobic political rhetoric being aimed at the made-up problem of "foreign investors" buying up all the housing there.

 

[trader/warrior]

One thing that I find so incredibly stupid is the way North American broadcasters tally up the medals. They add up ALL THE MEDALS and rank countries based on the total..

So stupid. Do it the IOC way, that's how the rest of the world does it. It's not ideal, but it's a lot less stupid.

I get why it's done, it makes the U.S. and Canada look better. But c'mon

Meh, either way is fine by me.

Or the "Impressiveness-o-meter"-way of this youtuber:

BTW, did I mention Norway wins any way you count it*?

*the one that matters, winter. And though admittedly I do like the total medal count where we currently lead by almost ten to the one gold we lead by.

 

[Hrothbern]

Very good approach

I still miss the money factor, the cost and natural availability for the needed facilities.
10 km athletics hardley needing money, hockey substantial money, langlauf skiing only winters with snow and some hilly area, etc
And ofc the same calculation engine then per sport kind.

I guess that will roughly add up to a strong shift downward of the rich countries
And for example Norway & Canada, being both rich as having lots of natural availabilities going South a long way.

 

[Sommerswerd]

TL;DR
Muricans - Let's use a method of calculating who "won" the Olympics that maximizes the US's chance of "winning"
Everybody else - Let's use a method of calculating who "won" the Olympics that ensures the US doesn't "win"

LOLs