Rant #2,834: Games People Play

How was your Valentine’s Day?
 
Mine was pretty droll, to tell you the truth.
 
My family and I gave each other cards for the occasion, and that included to my mother, who turns 91 years young in less than a month,
 
I bought some dollar chocolates for my wife and mother—my wife gave her candy to my mom—and that was pretty much that.
 
And don’t tell me that you forgot about Valentine’s Day because I did not mention it at the Blog at all, the first time I didn’t do that in all the years I have been writing this column.
 
I had bigger fish to fry yesterday, and I believe I fried that fish pretty well indeed.
 
But onto today … and let’s talk about the Winter Olympics.
 
No, I have not changed my tune on the Olympics, both summer and winter.
 
I believe that the Olympics have absolutely, positively and completely nothing to do with sports.
 
They are a political statement bathed in athletics that happens every couple of years, and I came to that conclusion the hard way, when I—and the world—watched in horror when the Israeli athletes were murdered during the games 50 years ago, and I saw the almost nonchalance of the Olympic Committee—then led by noted anti-Semite Avery Brundidge--in how they handled that episode.
 
And there were episodes of corrupt officials, doing everything they could to change the course of history at these games, such as when the U.S. lost to the Russians for the first time in basketball, when the ending was replayed several times before the officials got it “right.”
 
I vowed never to watch the winter or summer games again, and I have kept that promise to myself.
 
But I have seen the games get even more political from the outside looking in, and I see the phony pride that some of my fellow Americans have for these games.
 
They often spout off with pride on sports and athletes where we excel during the games, but a month later, they can’t remember the names of the athletes or the sports they won medals in.
 
So I guess it goes both ways—that the games are too political and those who follow the event bathe themselves in phony national pride for the moment—and the whole thing turns me off.
 
We are smack dab in the middle of the 2022 Winter Olympics, and I see that things continue apace at these games.
 
Nothing has changed, and I will give you a few examples why I will continue to never watch the Olympics.

First off, the games are being held in China, a country rife with human rights violations that are well known and evident ... but then again, the Olympics were once held in Hitler's Nazi Germany, so nothing is beneath the Olympic planners, either then or now.
 
Then, let's talk about the case of figure skating phenom Kamila Valieva, who made history early in this year’s games when she became the first woman to ever land a "quad jump," which as I understand it, is a four-rotations jump, and her abilities helped the Russians win a gold in her competition..
 
The problem was that one day later, word came out that Valieva had tested positive for a performance enhancing drug back in December.
 
Thus, she should had never be allowed to participate as an Olympic athlete to begin with, but here is the real rub--
 
The Court of Arbitration for Sport decided to allow the 15-year-old to skate in the individual competition, despite doping with a drug that enhances endurance.
 
If she wins, she cannot participate in the awards ceremony, and there won't even be an awards ceremony ... and if that is the decision, then why is she participating to begin with?
 
Aren’t the Olympics about “true” sports performance, not “enhanced” sports performance?
 
And, of course, this robs the true athletes—figure skaters from our country—the chance to bask in what amounts to “true” gold medal performance, both as a single skater and as a team member,
 
And then we have the case of American speed skater Erin Jackson,, who won the gold medal in the women’s 500-meter speed skating competition, brining home the gold for Team USA.
 
However, while that is the most important point of her win, you would not know it by the media coverage of her victory, where her race seemed to be more important than her winning the gold medal for the United States.
 
She evidently was the first black woman to win a gold medal at this event, and this is what made headlines, not the fact that she won the gold for the U.S. team.
 
In fact, this win was trumpeted in such a way that for the uninitiated, you would swear she won the gold for the “Black” team.
 
I don’t know, the last time I looked, the beauty of the American team was that it was populated by black, white, yellow and brown participants, all making up ONE unique team.
 
Individual achievements are nice, but the Olympics is supposed to be a true team sport. You compete for your country, you represent your country, and when you win a medal, it is for your country, not for the individual.
 
Or at least that is what I thought the whole aim of the games was.
 
Instead, we have something that is just so stupid, so political, and so worthless, and gives me another reason why my vow of never watching the Olympics again holds steadfast through the 2022 games, and will continue into the future.