Have the Olympics jumped the shark?

[Mozart]

I have been pondering this. Who really benefits from the Olympics?

-they leave most of the host countries in debt
-they don’t necessarily leave a useful “legacy” for the host country
-the list of countries that can host this supposedly international movement gets shorter and shorter
-the majority of the local populace can’t even afford to watch the events

Who does benefit?

-IOC members who, while mired in corruption scandals, reportedly get $900 a day per diems to attend, while volunteers are overworked and not looked after.

-advertisers and corporate sponsors

Do the athletes even REALLY benefit? Yes it launches the professional careers of a select few but I would suggest the vast majority get a cool story to tell their grandkids.

What would sports look like without the Olympics? There would still be international competition and World Championships, run by people who actually know what they are doing, (ok maybe WEG’s excepted lol)

We feel warm and fuzzy admiring superior athletes like Simone Biles but one week out we don’t really think about them anymore.

The more I think about it the more I come to the conclusion that this benefits a very small handful of European elite.

Thoughts?

[Foxtrot_s]

Good questions - I have thoughts, too, but the debate is a large one. Costs are over the top.

I do also feel the athletes - while necessary for the Games - are basically window dressing.

Very, very few, even gold medallists, make anything out of their success - and the majority nothing. Few commercials, or if they are lucky they become broadcasters or commentators, trainers, of make some ind of career.

Flip side, sports have a huge effect on people who do it, youngsters learn
from their peers, have healthy lifestyles, set goals, learn to give back by volunteering, be team players on and on and on.

A leaner, less corrupt, less cronyism Games will have to be the future, as nobody wants to go into debt in these recessionary times…

[Velvet]

I’ve been saying for years that they need to just skip them and do world championships for each sport, in already existing, appropriate venues.

[FalseImpression]

I think they have… too many people of the IOC have forgotten the real reason of the Games and just fill their pockets… ie the latest scandal over tickets.

And now the risk to the Paralympics Games.
It is sad for the athletes who have dedicated so many years to train, but frankly, choosing countries like Brazil (so much corruption and crime) was a bad idea. I bet the IOC members are doing quite fine… and I did hear the $900 per diem as well. Disgusting!
But then we watch and fill the pockets of the TV networks that paid millions for the rights!

[lidador]

Whether the Olympics are the best way to accomplish what I list below, and whether they are worth the negatives you list are certainly significant questions.

Here are some positives as I see them:

1. The Olympics showcase sports most people don’t usually care about or even know about.

I’d hope that exposure from the Olympics drives up interest and participation in less widely followed sports. The only sports the general public (in America at least) pay attention to on a regular basis, other than those they are directly or indirectly involved in, are the major team sports (and maybe tennis and golf). I don’t expect world championships for a single sport get the attention of the general public like the Olympics do.

I have been directly told all of the following (and I promise I’m not exaggerating):

• “Riding isn’t a sport [because the horse does all the work].” (EVERY time the Olympics roll around. It’s like some running joke that’s wayyy past the point of being funny.)
• “None of the Winter Olympics sports are real sports.” (Someone actually said this to me with complete sincerity.)
• “Anything with subjective judging is not a sport.”
• “If there isn’t a goal (like a basketball net or soccer goal), then it isn’t a sport.” (Polo is a sport! Woo!)

I don’t recall hearing “If it doesn’t have a ball, it isn’t a sport” or “The only real sports are team sports” explicitly but the the above list comes awfully close. So, when kids are encouraged to get into sports or do sports, what they probably see as their options are baseball, basketball, football, and soccer. Having such a narrow view of what counts as a “sport” shuts off a huge world of physical activity that kids might enjoy and excel in better than the major team sports.

2. The Olympics bring us positive examples of sportsmanship and demonstrate that cheering for the accomplishments of the “other team” doesn’t negate our support and pride in “our team.”

I don’t recall whether it’s like this every time, but this year I’ve really gotten an “Olympics as a community of the world” vibe. We’re all cheering for athletes that just won their country’s first Olympic medal. We’re all applauding for the sportsmanship displayed in the women’s 5k. And so on. It’s a really nice break from the “your arbitrarily chosen team is different from my arbitrarily chosen team so I hate you” attitude that seems to be central to the experience of football fandom for many people.

3. The Olympics make foreigners a little less foreign to us.

I personally think that we (Americans again), do make positive associations with non-western/non-western European countries through the Olympics, and I think that builds capital for when popular support is needed for the USA to actually take action towards those countries that will benefit them. It makes places like Kosovo and Ethiopia less abstract in our minds, and that matters.

[Night_Flight]

I have wondered this as well.

I suspect that the Olympics do a much better job at inspiring kids (and some adults) to be active. Individual world championships don’t get anywhere close to the same media attention as do the Olympics, and let’s face it, kids don’t dream about winning a world championship, they dream about winning Olympic medals.

Now how much is that worth?

[ybiaw]

[QUOTE=lidador;8804137]

1. The Olympics showcase sports most people don’t usually care about or even know about.[/QUOTE]

I agree with your whole post, lidador!!!

I’d just like to touch on this, though, because I’m not sure how coverage of the Games has been for people outside the US, but here in the states, I have been SO disappointed. NBC is not, in my opinion, doing a great job.

I’d love it if they actually DID showcase some lesser-known sports. I was watching on DTV channel 205 the other day and of the 8 screens it showed, 3 were basketball (the same game, btw), 2 were soccer, 2 were beach volleyball, and the remaining one was golf. So not really a vast collection of lesser-known sports - we see Basketball and soccer and golf all the time! And by the end of the first week, I felt like screaming “HOW MUCH MORE BEACH VOLLEYBALL AM I GOING TO HAVE TO WATCH?!?!” :lol:

I know it’s ratings. But there has to be a better way. I wish there were some way to make the Games broadcasts accessible in real time (no more waiting to broadcast events in Prime Time for ratings and advertising money) for free to people who don’t have access to cable or another way to watch.

Although I consider myself to be a bigger fan of the Winter Games, I do enjoy watching things like gymnastics and swimming and diving and the field events in track and field (pole vault, high jump, etc) in the Summer Games. I don’t need to see a marathon in its entirety, though. I don’t need to see 7 soccer games per day. I’d love to see the Modern Pentathlon or the Decathlon (remember - traditionally, the title of “World’s Greatest Athlete” has been given to the person who wins the Olympic decathlon!!!). I also LOVE to watch rowing.

Circling back to the original topic, I think that the Olympics still have a valuable place. But I think they need to be smarter in choosing where to hold them. The IOC knows that hosting the Games can put a city into financial hardship - they should only entertain bids from cities that they know can handle it. I read through the 2016 bids a couple weeks ago, because I wanted to see Chicago’s bid. They had budgeted for 4.8 Million - but the bill probably would have totaled over 14 Million. You can’t put the Games in a place that would be unable to shoulder that kind of financial burden, regardless of how or if they line the pockets of the IOC Selection Committee.

So, have the Games jumped the shark? No I don’t think so. But I do think there is room for improvement, and definite opportunity to work smarter, not harder.

Also advertising money and ratings have ruined the broadcasts. Harumpf. The Games should be licensed to ALL the major networks, and the events divvied up equally among them so their ratings and advertising money would be about equal over the 15 days the Games are held. JMO.

[rothmpp]

For me, I’d love for the there to be a way for the Olympics to stop being a giant financial drain for the host location and filled with opportunity for corruption. I think those who have said that it might be time for the IOC to select some permanent locations leaving open the option for the application from a non-permanent location are right on the money.

I still like them because I can watch a small bit of all kinds of sports that I would never make time for otherwise. Let’s face it - I’m never turning on the world championships for rowing or fencing. So for two weeks I can see a huge variety and then not think about it for the next four years.

[Mozart]

lidador your points are very valid and I agree that those are three positive aspects. Certain dramas that have played out at the Olympics are forever in my mind, like Derek Redmond’s father helping him across the finish line when he injured his hamstring or the Norwegian cross country coach offering a pole to a Canadian skier when hers broke.

The Olympics are drama writ large; joy, elation, tragedy, love, humour. All available for the world to witness as a community due to focussed media scrutiny.

But at what cost?

I can’t shake the feeling that rich people are getting richer, poor people are getting no benefit and we are being briefly entertained by the world’s biggest circus.

[Kadenz]

@ybiaw;8804237

I agree with your whole post, lidador!!!

I’d just like to touch on this, though, because I’m not sure how coverage of the Games has been for people outside the US, but here in the states, I have been SO disappointed. NBC is not, in my opinion, doing a great job.

My cable company actually has an NBC Olympics app, where I can watch any sport that’s running, live. Also replays. DH and I have watched kayaking, field hockey, and judo (in addition to eventing and dressage, of course!:winkgrin:)

I have a friend with the same cable company and she was making the same complaint as above, that NBC only shows beach volleyball, all the while apparently unaware that she actually had access (on TV and online) to literally every event.

[Guilherme]

[QUOTE=Mozart;8803819]
I have been pondering this. Who really benefits from the Olympics?

-they leave most of the host countries in debt
-they don’t necessarily leave a useful “legacy” for the host country
-the list of countries that can host this supposedly international movement gets shorter and shorter
-the majority of the local populace can’t even afford to watch the events

Who does benefit?

-IOC members who, while mired in corruption scandals, reportedly get $900 a day per diems to attend, while volunteers are overworked and not looked after.

-advertisers and corporate sponsors

Do the athletes even REALLY benefit? Yes it launches the professional careers of a select few but I would suggest the vast majority get a cool story to tell their grandkids.

What would sports look like without the Olympics? There would still be international competition and World Championships, run by people who actually know what they are doing, (ok maybe WEG’s excepted lol)

We feel warm and fuzzy admiring superior athletes like Simone Biles but one week out we don’t really think about them anymore.

The more I think about it the more I come to the conclusion that this benefits a very small handful of European elite.

Thoughts?[/QUOTE]

There’s a song from “Cabaret” entitled “Money Makes the World Go 'Round.” I believe this is the answer.

G.

[Anonymoose]

Originally posted by lidador:

3. The Olympics make foreigners a little less foreign to us.

I personally think that we (Americans again), do make positive associations with non-western/non-western European countries through the Olympics, and I think that builds capital for when popular support is needed for the USA to actually take action towards those countries that will benefit them. It makes places like Kosovo and Ethiopia less abstract in our minds, and that matters.

A friend and I were talking about this today. I used to think the Olympics were a great place for young people from different countries to meet and compete with each other.

Say you grow up fencing in Philadelphia. You fence with other people from your neighborhood, then other parts of Philadelphia, then PA, then the region, then the US. Then you make the Olympics and suddenly you’re fencing with someone from the other side of the world, who doesn’t speak your verbal language, doesn’t look very much like you, but “speaks” the language of fencing, and with whom you can communicate through your foils/epees/sabres. How cool is that!

But these Olympics, it seems all the athletes from all the different countries already know each other. I see them hugging each other, congratulating each other, chatting with each other. I think that’s great. I learn that they compete against each other all the time, in different events, in different countries. So they already know each other, they’ve been to each other’s countries, some of them live in one country but compete for another country, training with a coach from still another country. That’s nice too. But it sort of negates the need for an every-four-year get-together of the world’s strong young athletes to meet and compete together. What’s the point?

Add to that that these athletes work so hard to be the best that they spend a lot of time having surgeries, therapies, yet expected to miraculously stay off drugs – yes, have operations, have implants or whatever, but don’t take any drugs.

And it sort of defeats the purpose of the international Games that cost host cities billions.

It’s not like poor kids can compete anyway. How many of your parents could afford to fly around the world to watch you compete abroad, pay for a hotel room for a week or two, pay for your shoes/skates/skis/foil/epee/sabre?

It’s like the golfers staying away from Rio. What was the point?

[Foxtrot_s]

The ideals of sportsmanship when demonstrated we hold in our hearts for ever - but also the unsportsmanlike behaviour of some - like a member of a middle eastern country snubbing another, when the role of the Olympics is partly to bring nations together in friendship without politics.

In the 100 m hurdles for women last night it was a little odd to see the one blonde athlete being ignored and standing around feeling a little lame when the three American (black) girls won first, second and third and all the hugging and kissing was going on. She had offered warm smiles and was basically ignored…maybe not intentionally, but it was obvious for all to see.

[SolarFlare]

I love the athletes but I hate the IOC, so I’m torn.

I doubt the IOC will go for the permanent-location rotation, as that would mean they lose out on the (literally) millions of dollars of bribes from host-country-wannabees.

[Maythehorsebewithme]

I heard a suggestion to keep the host country from going into debt–have many host countries! Instead of a city competing to host the whole Olympics, cities would compete for events or clusters of events. For example, Italy is crazy about fencing–so fencing goes to Rome. Track and field to Helsinki. The marathon to capital of Ethiopia or Kenya. Horse sports would go where horse sports are popular.

Existing venues could be used–no need to build.

Imagine an opening ceremony being handed off all over the world as the time zones change!

[Rackonteur]

[QUOTE=Mozart;8804331]
lidador your points are very valid and I agree that those are three positive aspects. Certain dramas that have played out at the Olympics are forever in my mind, like Derek Redmond’s father helping him across the finish line when he injured his hamstring or the Norwegian cross country coach offering a pole to a Canadian skier when hers broke.

The Olympics are drama writ large; joy, elation, tragedy, love, humour. All available for the world to witness as a community due to focussed media scrutiny.

But at what cost?

I can’t shake the feeling that rich people are getting richer, poor people are getting no benefit and we are being briefly entertained by the world’s biggest circus.[/QUOTE]

If more people get that message from the Olympics, and it makes them realize that this is the state of the world every year, not just every two years, then that is a positive impact of the Olympics.

But is it enough reason to keep having them?

[Lady_Eboshi]

Here’s what I’d like to see for future Olympics:

(1) Have the Summer Games permanently take place in Athens, Greece. One venue, unchanging, other countries can throw into the pot to maintain it. The Winter Games likewise held permanently in a country where there sure as hell will be snow. No more venue-building, no more former venues crumbling.

(2) Major professional sports with their own lucrative world championships and heavy commercial sponsorships, such as soccer, tennis, golf, basketball, hockey, and baseball should be dropped from the Olympics.

Keep the focus on traditional, individual sports that don’t normally get exposure.

[Foxtrot_s]

What I loved about the Games, as opposed to Championships of an individual sport, is that we did see sports and athletes we do not normally get to see on tv.
I am interested in other sports and would care about them, but we never get to know the names - until the Big O comes around or the Pan Ams.

[js]

[QUOTE=Velvet;8804108]
I’ve been saying for years that they need to just skip them and do world championships for each sport, in already existing, appropriate venues.[/QUOTE]

I agree with this

[red_mares]

I still don’t care about fencing. Or track & field. Or swimming. Or (insert sport here).

Are the Olympics over yet?

BTW, there are enough “foreigners” in my zip code, I don’t need the Olympics to become aware of them. A trip to Global Foods is a better cultural learning experience than a couple hours spent watch beach volleyball.