Glad THAT'S Over

The 2010 Vancouver Olympics are done. Another Olympics has come and gone...THANK HEAVEN.

I watched exactly one Olympic event this time around: the hockey gold medal game, primarily because I love hockey. That's also exactly one more event than I watched in the past two Olympics combined. I should have just not even wasted my time. (To be honest, I don't know why they bother issuing silver and bronze medals in the hockey tournament. It's a playoff, and only one team wins a playoff. Everyone else loses...so a fake piece of silver or bronze around your neck has about as much meaning and value as a 2nd-place ribbon at the local county fair. Ask the American players today how good they feel about what they ended up with yesterday, and how many of them would've felt a lot better just chucking their medals into the crowd as they headed off the ice in defeat. Really, check the replays...did any of them look very pleased during the medal ceremony? My impression was that none of them wanted to be there at all...which probably would've been much better, anyway.)

Now we can get back to the reality of the world as it is. I'm really not a hopey, changey kind of person...because in the world I live in, people never change, never have changed, and never will change. (Or rather, people don't want to change...they want everyone else to change.) People will always look out for their own local, personal, individual interests, and that leads to countries that only look out for their own interests, and that's really what it's all about. The Olympics isn't about peace, friendly competition, world unification, or any of that nonsense. It's all about money, prestige, egos, aggression...pretty much everything that the Olympics is not supposed to be about. So let's all give up the delusion, shall we?

For those of you who still harbor the notion that the Olympics is some sort of wonderful, pure international exhibition, some sort of window into what-could-be if we'd all just try to get along, consider the following questions: If the Olympics are so unimportant...

...why did Canada spend nearly $110 million to "dominate the medals platform"? (If you think I'm pulling stuff out of my rear, Google this. You'll find it. It's also mentioned in the article here.)

...why did Canada make a point of monopolizing the practice time immediately prior to the games, even when the rest of the athletes were there and needing a few runs of their own? (This is specifically mentioned as a factor leading up to the death of the Georgian luger.)

...why do we still live with countless judging travesties in the subjective sports? Now even the "objective" sports are being ruined. The Americans and South Koreans each lost medals, thanks to the insights of the officials in speed skating.

...why does NBC pay tens of millions of dollars for the rights to broadcast, and charge millions to companies that want to advertise?

...why do cities spend hundreds of millions in their respective currencies on advertising and travel and politicking and new facilities to get the "privilege" of hosting an Olympic Games?

...why is booing the Americans such a common thread at any Olympics? Not that it bothers us, because we're really quite used to it, by this point. But really, if all this is so friendly...do I really need to finish that sentence? (I heard that the IOC is strongly considering making "booing the Americans" a certified sport. It can go in both summer AND winter, the Americans would never want to compete, and it would have awesome TV coverage in the rest of the world. As far as they're concerned, that's win-win-win.)

...why is drug testing required now? Why would you need such a boost for something so inconsequential?

...why are all the athletes professionals now? I thought the Olympics were supposed to feature amateurs, because it's so pure.

It's all meaningless, right? Just a little friendly international competition? On the other hand, the Olympic Village needed an "emergency shipment of condoms" because supplies were low. I guess this is a counter-proof that the Olympics really IS an international love-fest.

Would it even matter if the US pulled out of the Olympics altogether? Who really even cares? Would you rally and protest to Congress and get all up-in-arms about it? I doubt it. I'd rather see it that way, myself...let the rest of the world pretend, while we Americans do the heavy lifting for them, as usual.

I admit, I loved the Olympics when I was a kid. I loved watching the bobsled and the hockey and the skiing and the speed-skating. But I grew up eventually.