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The Current Crisis
Another Olympic Blah
I have slapped a boycott on this year’s summer Olympics.
WASHINGTON — The summer Olympic are upon us, and already they are spoiling things for those of us who like our summers restful and given over to reasonable pageantry, particularly pageantry in London. For those of you who have not been made aware of it, the Olympics are in London this summer, which is about as appropriate as holding the world gun fight championships in Rome just across the palazzo from the Vatican, if there are world gunfight championships. The gunfight championships should be held in an appropriate setting like Kabul or some Middle Eastern metropolis along with the world car bombing championships. London should be off limits for tasteless vulgarity.
In summer London is one of the loveliest cities on earth, and certainly among the most sophisticated. But how will we enjoy Shakespeare in the park or great concerts, or the British Spectator’s annual summer party, when thousands of athletes are being offloaded from airplanes and preparing for their multitudinous over-hyped contests? There will be media and of course idiotic sports writers. There will be purveyors of sports equipment and even more egregious commercial interests. The Giant Corporations will be on hand to sell automobiles, perhaps even agricultural equipment and maybe gigantic land movers. Can you see Michael Phelps wearing a high tech swimsuit driving up in a John Deere e-series Wheeled Harvester and saying, “I go everywhere in my John Deere”? There will be ads for junk foods, nutritional foods, beer, and countless other products — all proud sponsors of the Olympics and the “Olympic Spirit.”
Well, count me out! I shall announce it here and now. I have slapped a boycott on this year’s summer Olympics. I shall not even attend the Spectator’s summer party, and I especially relish it. There are journalists, serious writers like the great Paul Johnson, and many pretty girls, some wearing hats. They serve Pol Roger chilled to perfection. All you can drink! Alas, I shall stay at home.
Even back in the Cold War period when the Soviet stallions and geldings were flaunting their pharmaceutically enhanced muscles I opposed the Olympics. I swam on a swimming team (Indiana University’s) with teammates that actually were Olympians and world record holders. They accused me of being miffed about never making it to the Olympics. Of course, I never made the team. I hardly made it into the viewing stands for the Olympic trials. Yet, as it turned out I did not have to make the team. Bob Knight, the legendary Indiana basketball coach, had it right when he said, “Tyrrell, as your writing career has prospered your athletic career has too.” Yes indeed, I am often introduced as a former world-class swimmer so why should I have bothered training and missing out on all the fun of a college boy. I had the best of it: a lot of fun in college and no long hours in the pool. The legend will never die.
Yet back to the Olympics. The Olympic spirit died sometime back in the 1930s when Hitler politicized what the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, envisaged as an apolitical celebration of health and athleticism. Stalin continued Hitler’s work. With the dictators’ politicization came another body blow to old Pierre’s Olympic Ideal, the end of amateurism. All athletes from totalitarian countries and from nationalistic countries were essentially professional athletes. Now there is no distinction between an amateur and a professional, and the crass commercialization that has come to dominate the Olympics is appalling. Moreover, in America the sentimentalization of Olympians is positively sickening. Is there not one athlete, who made it to the Olympics from the land of milk and honey, with a silver spoon in his mouth, with parents who adored him, and one voluptuous break after another? Did every member of the United States team have to overcome hardship, rejection, episodes of poverty, and diseases almost too horrible to mention — but not quite? We the public are regaled with stories of what one prima donna athlete after another suffered or thought they suffered.
This summer as the Olympics are perpetrated in I shall go down to the neighborhood tennis court and watch the children and the old folks play. A game is a game, and sometimes a game waged by octogenarians is really heroic.
About the Author
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (29) | Leave a comment
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JohnD| 6.28.12 @ 6:23AM
Its "Michael" Phelps, not Mark Phelps.
Ken (Old Texican)| 6.28.12 @ 6:26AM
Heh,
my thoughts exactly.
Appleby| 6.28.12 @ 6:31AM
I don't care for summer sports, so will catch some of the bike racing and let the rest go by without my attention.
LindaF | 6.28.12 @ 6:47AM
The Olympics has become a snore. It's overly politicized, over-commercialized, and filled with subsidized athletes.
True amateurs are rare, and seldom winners. If I liked watching professional sports all that much, I'd watch ESPN the rest of the year - which I don't.
Doctor Right| 6.28.12 @ 6:07PM
I lost interest when ABC lost the broadcast rights, and when they let professionals openly participate.
Von Mises Jr| 6.28.12 @ 7:21AM
I shall wait for football and relish it before the sissies ban it.
Doctor Right| 6.28.12 @ 6:08PM
Yup.
chuck| 6.28.12 @ 7:34AM
And the sob stories about the "struggle" of the Olympians make me want to puke.
Moe Blotz| 6.28.12 @ 9:10AM
You should have seen the NBC broadcast of "Olympic" trials from Oregon last weekend. The snippet showing the Decathlon had potential, but became a farce. The best scene was the former Olympic Champion fall off his chair and almost into Bruce Jenner's lap. On the track in the 1500 metre race, Ashton Eaton was touted as closing in on a world and Olympic record in the accumulation of points, 1500 metre race being the last event. Eaton was third entering the final turn and had little chance of overtaking second place, much the last first. Within three metres of the finish line, the first two runners pulled up into a walk and Eaton won. Celebrations ensued. I switched over to a golf match and then went outside to enjoy an aromatic cigar in the heat of the sun.
R Martin| 6.28.12 @ 7:39AM
Another reason not to watch the Olympics on American TV--Bob Costas.
Hardcard| 6.28.12 @ 7:55AM
What olympics ? Is that the 60's Do-Wop group?
The Yankees are in 1st place, Go Yanks ?
Doctor Right| 6.28.12 @ 8:09AM
Sounds to me like you haven't been to the UK lately, Bob...
The British, and particularly the English have one of the most coarse, vulgar cultures in the Western world.
That's what 60 years of socialism does.
Moe Blotz| 6.28.12 @ 9:02AM
The vulgarity coincides with the decline of Britain's brewing industry and the youths embracing continental style lager. Traditional British ales are hand pumped to the bar or served from stillage, to be sipped and enjoyed much as a fine wine would be. Fizzwater served under pressure from a keg, either carbon dioxide or a mix that includes nitrogen, is flavourless and merely delivers an alcohol hit that poisons the minds of those who drink it. The Brits have a term for them: Lager Louts. The American version can be found in stadiums throughout the USA.
Occam's Tool| 6.28.12 @ 3:37PM
The only sport I give a damn about is Winter Curling, as I live in Northern Minnesota. And Windsurfing, as I am Jewish. That's about it.
Doctor Right| 6.28.12 @ 6:04PM
What about the 100-meter Kvetch???
Surely that is of interest to you, OT?
Occam's Tool| 6.28.12 @ 3:35PM
Doctor R: Absolutely correct. I lived in New Zealand for a year (Commonwealth and MUCH more British like than Canada) and the Brothel openly advertised its wares on the main street of Rotorua, New Zealand. Scumbags.
OP4| 6.28.12 @ 9:44AM
I can't wait to watch the softball and baseball tournaments -woops, nevermind.
I'm sure the shooting sports will never be seen in a broadcast, so I will be indifferent to the whole thing.
Bob Grant| 6.28.12 @ 9:45AM
Oy vey, Where to begin with the Olympics.
A microcosm of all that is wrong with sports, government, and society, on exhibit for two weeks every four years.
The government excess - see Greece '04
The narcissism - e.g. the endless up close and personals of generally uninteresting people (I'm sure they are very decent people and interesting to friends and family)
The Corruption - See the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee, Pre Mitt Romney
The absurd two week pretence of enjoying synchronized diving, BMX bike racing, table tennis, or fencing................come on!
But we're REALLY hooked now because it's sooo much better on our High Def 60' flat panels, right? ....another excuse to plant ourselves in front of it and waste away another 2 weeks of our lives...right?
Granted, the Olympics were enjoyable to watch when it had a jingoistic tone from the '30's through the '90 but those days are long gone and it means something completely different today, and it's boring, because unless one has a direct relationship with the athlete or an aficionado of the sport, it's extremely tedious to watch. Sure, I'll give it a go and TRY to get interested but if the swimming trials on NBC are any indication, I'll be back to watching the Discovery Channel before day one is over.
cuban pete| 6.28.12 @ 9:54AM
Alysia Montano, the young lady with the flower in her hair who won the 800 was delightful. I'll be rooting for her.
Grzmlyk| 6.28.12 @ 10:59AM
I find it ironic indeed that a former swimmer can be drowning in liberalism and believe he's found dry land. I heard you on Schiff's show a few weeks ago peddling your book about how liberalism is dead.
Schiff brought up just a couple of points - obvious, low-hanging fruit - that show the opposite - that we are rushing headlong into a socialist/fascist dictatorship with no hope of extricating ourselves from the inevitable future of hyperinflation and collapse - and your response was something like, well, what do you want to do, give up?
No, Emmett. But eventually the little boy has to stop sifting through the mountain of horse manure and insisting that there's a pony in there somewhere.
Liberalism is NOT dead. It is flourishing because it has complete control of 95% of the media, all of academia, most of science and, of course, ALL of the government.
It is a stage 4 cancer that has metastasized in this country. And we all know what happens when such a parasitic disease overcomes the vital organs.
Just ask one of the Euro countries how that return to sanity is going.
KyMouse| 6.28.12 @ 11:17AM
One of my mother's closest friends was to have been a swimmer in the 1940 Olympics. When they were cancelled, she lost her one chance to compete. She was very disappointed; however, she didn't pitch a fit, try to sue anybody, or otherwise tell the world how she had been wronged. She got on with her life and, when America entered the war, started volunteering at the nearest USO, to help the departing soldiers.
Who Knows?| 6.28.12 @ 11:20AM
Ah, sports wilderness!
As an alum of Oregon, my memory always “jerks”, whenever TV throws electrons beaming from Tracktown USA. So many clingers to confront, and transcend---that is, memories from “my” vital youth, spent and enjoyed THERE-THEN!
I have no problem WATCHING the Olympics, though.
As a rabid lover of classical music, it is easy to use my CD player AND TV at once---merely use the mute button on the TV. Also, I long ago became an adept with the button that changes channels, so when a Bob Costa type starts any interviews, it’s flip away, finger.
As with all sports, the actual time spent playing is minimal. Most of the TV time is indeed Narcissistic filler, and definitely not fun to allow into my attention, so another happy habit is to get out of the chair, in such situations, as well as when commercials air, and go for a short hike in my pad.
But, why not WATCH the individual events?
“My old man can beat your old man”, or these days, “My lawyer can beat up your lawyer”---seeing individuals compete at the highest level IS, I find, worthy of my full attention. With so much phoniness extant, indeed the antithesis of excellence---increasing obesity, anyone?---even though the best athletes are not amateurs and may even be using illegal means to amp performance, it’s a relief to see SOME more or less pure physical beauty.
Le Cracquere| 6.28.12 @ 11:36AM
I didn't watch the 2008 Olympics, and if a principled man is looking to boycott the Summer Games, that's when he should have done it Commercialization, professionalization, and crassness are all very irritating, but I'm grateful that those are the worst things to object to this time around.
Tom Kyba| 6.28.12 @ 12:42PM
I echo most of the comments here. Perhaps the olympics will just get the transformation over with and award medals to everyone. "You're all winners"(thanks to Seinfeld).
Hardcard| 6.28.12 @ 12:57PM
hitler's favorite event.
Occam's Tool| 6.28.12 @ 3:38PM
But I won't be watching---still no moment of silence for the Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian vermin at the Olympics. Not THEN, at Munich, and not since.
Doctor Right| 6.28.12 @ 6:06PM
I'm with you, OT. I was only 6 years old but I remember it well.
Looking back it's hard to believe they continued the games...
UpChuck.Liberals| 6.30.12 @ 10:35PM
Heck I don't need ANY of that not to tune in. Simply hearing that Moochelle will be carrying a flag that she doesn't care about in front of our athletes was enough for me.
gene| 7.2.12 @ 10:29AM
I stopped watching the Olympics when many athletes won Gold medals and I knew nothing about it. Not even a 30 second sound bite to honor men and women in many track and field events. They were completely ignored while the Network reporting the Olympics spend an eternity filming and reporting hour after hour on Beach - FREAKIN-Volleyball. I have nothing against Beach Volleyball, but to COMPLETELY ignore other athletes and events and not even give them 30 seconds or even 15 seconds worth of time? That was an obscenity. No doubt it will happen again with this Olympic coverage. I will not know either way because like so many others, I will not be watching it.