My thoughts on the olympics
The olympics got me thinking about a lot of things olympics, here they are.
If a tree falls in a jungle and nobody hears it fall, did it really fall, or more important if you dont care about falling trees, especially in some distant jungle, does it matter at all. In many ways the olympics is one such extravaganza, most people in my country, do not care, we have other things to worry about like food, monsoon, cricket, inflation and traffic just to name a few, that some countries are competing in earnest to win a synchronized diving event based on least amount of water splashed and pointed toes does not event register on our radars, nor does it for most people in the world. Does this in some way take away from an olympic medal as most people dont care who won, and is it a parody that there are countries and people investing blood, sweat and tears into something we dont care two hoots about.
Are countries fighting for a false sense of prestige. They are putting too much into something that was not supposed to be about winning in the first place. Olympics is like a competition for which country has the biggest shiniest diamond, so all the countries start digging to find the biggest stones, success depends on who has suitable land and better machinery. After days and nights of digging they are presented to the judges and three diamonds get chosen, whats in it for me other than the sight of a polished diamond I will forget in a minute after the competition.
The olympics was supposed to be about amateurs, who came together once in a while, setting aside their day jobs, to compete. That spirit has been long forgotten. Every athlete essentially dedicates at the least 2-4 years before the olympics and many before, doing nothing but training for the big day, they are supported by their families or sponsors or in most cases by their governments with the specific intention of winning a medal. This is not about competing, its all about bragging rights for a country. Havent we just thrown the spirit of the olympics under a bus. Just hearing stories about people separated from their families, athletes removing themselves from society, just to win medals, makes me think if it is worth it. More money a country puts into its sports infrastructure for those cherry picked elite individuals the more medals a country wins, and that seems to be the gist of the olympics medals.
Another pet grief I have is the amount of technology that goes into every sport, the high grade stuff one needs to have access to, just to compete at that level. Where then is the equality in competition, the guy with the better stick wins. What about drugs, dietary supplements, high protein shakes, the must haves for any athlete wanting to compete at this level, is this in the true spirit of competition.
I like competitions with a clear result, I truly believe that stuff like gymnastics, diving, synchronized what ever, should have no place in olympics competitions. Dont get me wrong, I respect what those people do, marvel at their jumps, twists and turns, but any competition that hinges on a bunch of people decide a winner based on pointed toes and number of turns is truly absurd. I never understood the concept of difficulty level, how can you compare different routines, who decides something is a difficult level of 3.8 versus 3.6, this is so arbitrary. The scoring is even more arbitrary, how can a person decide that a routine was worth 7.8 vs 7.7, moreover it is so easy for the judges to become biased, then there is the practice of throwing away the highest and lowest scores and averaging the result of other judges, could anybody call these sports a fair result with a straight face.
I used to like boxing, the winner was the last man standing, let them go 5 rounds, 10 rounds or 20 rounds. Boxing in the olympics on the other hand is not even about how many punches the winner landed, its all about how many were scored by the judges, and there again we have three biased individuals deciding the outcome based on what they saw from their angle, doesnt matter if they were distracted by a bumble bee or a lady in a red dress in the audience, this is so bull shit. On top of that losers can appeal and the decision can be reversed, so if decisions can be wrong why not use the video recording in the first place, and whats with not using simple technology to record a punch and the force behind a punch, this again makes the sport so arbitrary that it should not be considered a medal sport.
Who deicides the sports anyway, how many people in the world know judo or taekwondo, why are they medal sports versus arm wrestling, why do we have so many running events, what about sack races, hopping and dancing. Same with swimming, why so many distances, whats the point, each distance does not have a different strategy, 100m, 400m, 800m, whats the difference, you run flat out till you reach the finish line, isnt it obvious when the same person can win two distances that they are essentially the same. If the race is about swimming, make it about swimming, not about how good you are at turning at the end of the pool.
Whats the deal with shooting and archery, cant we keep the sport simple, do we need all those guiders sticking out of a bow, the eye patches, tungsten strings, the arm rests and slings, why does the sport have to be so complicated, cant we just have a simple bow and arrow or a simple gun, whats the skill if they are using so much help, no wonder they hit the target more often than not, make it simple thereby making it difficult and then lets have a true competition of skill.
I dont think the badminton players deserved to be punished, win or lose its their prerogative, strategy demands that its ok to lose a battle to win the war, why wasnt argentina punished when it went with its second string team while playing the US in the last league match, why doesn't the olympics punish Bolt for running a substandard heat, he could have broken the record in the heats, he ran just enough to qualify, those are all examples of the same thing, its double standards to punish one and not punish the other.
Those end my olympic thoughts for now
If a tree falls in a jungle and nobody hears it fall, did it really fall, or more important if you dont care about falling trees, especially in some distant jungle, does it matter at all. In many ways the olympics is one such extravaganza, most people in my country, do not care, we have other things to worry about like food, monsoon, cricket, inflation and traffic just to name a few, that some countries are competing in earnest to win a synchronized diving event based on least amount of water splashed and pointed toes does not event register on our radars, nor does it for most people in the world. Does this in some way take away from an olympic medal as most people dont care who won, and is it a parody that there are countries and people investing blood, sweat and tears into something we dont care two hoots about.
Are countries fighting for a false sense of prestige. They are putting too much into something that was not supposed to be about winning in the first place. Olympics is like a competition for which country has the biggest shiniest diamond, so all the countries start digging to find the biggest stones, success depends on who has suitable land and better machinery. After days and nights of digging they are presented to the judges and three diamonds get chosen, whats in it for me other than the sight of a polished diamond I will forget in a minute after the competition.
The olympics was supposed to be about amateurs, who came together once in a while, setting aside their day jobs, to compete. That spirit has been long forgotten. Every athlete essentially dedicates at the least 2-4 years before the olympics and many before, doing nothing but training for the big day, they are supported by their families or sponsors or in most cases by their governments with the specific intention of winning a medal. This is not about competing, its all about bragging rights for a country. Havent we just thrown the spirit of the olympics under a bus. Just hearing stories about people separated from their families, athletes removing themselves from society, just to win medals, makes me think if it is worth it. More money a country puts into its sports infrastructure for those cherry picked elite individuals the more medals a country wins, and that seems to be the gist of the olympics medals.
Another pet grief I have is the amount of technology that goes into every sport, the high grade stuff one needs to have access to, just to compete at that level. Where then is the equality in competition, the guy with the better stick wins. What about drugs, dietary supplements, high protein shakes, the must haves for any athlete wanting to compete at this level, is this in the true spirit of competition.
I like competitions with a clear result, I truly believe that stuff like gymnastics, diving, synchronized what ever, should have no place in olympics competitions. Dont get me wrong, I respect what those people do, marvel at their jumps, twists and turns, but any competition that hinges on a bunch of people decide a winner based on pointed toes and number of turns is truly absurd. I never understood the concept of difficulty level, how can you compare different routines, who decides something is a difficult level of 3.8 versus 3.6, this is so arbitrary. The scoring is even more arbitrary, how can a person decide that a routine was worth 7.8 vs 7.7, moreover it is so easy for the judges to become biased, then there is the practice of throwing away the highest and lowest scores and averaging the result of other judges, could anybody call these sports a fair result with a straight face.
I used to like boxing, the winner was the last man standing, let them go 5 rounds, 10 rounds or 20 rounds. Boxing in the olympics on the other hand is not even about how many punches the winner landed, its all about how many were scored by the judges, and there again we have three biased individuals deciding the outcome based on what they saw from their angle, doesnt matter if they were distracted by a bumble bee or a lady in a red dress in the audience, this is so bull shit. On top of that losers can appeal and the decision can be reversed, so if decisions can be wrong why not use the video recording in the first place, and whats with not using simple technology to record a punch and the force behind a punch, this again makes the sport so arbitrary that it should not be considered a medal sport.
Who deicides the sports anyway, how many people in the world know judo or taekwondo, why are they medal sports versus arm wrestling, why do we have so many running events, what about sack races, hopping and dancing. Same with swimming, why so many distances, whats the point, each distance does not have a different strategy, 100m, 400m, 800m, whats the difference, you run flat out till you reach the finish line, isnt it obvious when the same person can win two distances that they are essentially the same. If the race is about swimming, make it about swimming, not about how good you are at turning at the end of the pool.
Whats the deal with shooting and archery, cant we keep the sport simple, do we need all those guiders sticking out of a bow, the eye patches, tungsten strings, the arm rests and slings, why does the sport have to be so complicated, cant we just have a simple bow and arrow or a simple gun, whats the skill if they are using so much help, no wonder they hit the target more often than not, make it simple thereby making it difficult and then lets have a true competition of skill.
I dont think the badminton players deserved to be punished, win or lose its their prerogative, strategy demands that its ok to lose a battle to win the war, why wasnt argentina punished when it went with its second string team while playing the US in the last league match, why doesn't the olympics punish Bolt for running a substandard heat, he could have broken the record in the heats, he ran just enough to qualify, those are all examples of the same thing, its double standards to punish one and not punish the other.
Those end my olympic thoughts for now
posted by adarsh adarsh at 10:20 PM
1 Comments:
I like the depth of your thought about it,although I don't agree completely Adarsh.
You might want to read this article as well -
http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-articles/god-and-i/are-olympics-relevant-today-98133
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