i don’t know that i agree with the ultimate prescription in charles lane’s editorial in WAPO today, but i encourage you to read it. i think it’s worth talking about.
Wow! I could have written that editorial because it is my thoughts EXACTLY. As he mentions, sure the Olympics have included some great moments in sports . . . but the Olympics weren’t needed for those moments. The Olympics are an exorbitant expense in a world with a shaky economy. They are all about who can have the most extravagant and expensive opening and closing ceremonies with the coolest torch lighting ceremony. They are all about politics & greed and increasingly a target for terrorists (not that I believe that by itself should be reason for getting rid of anything but the terrorists). Everyone thinks “their” sport should be an Olympic sport as if being in the Olympics justifies the sport. The Olympics, for the most part, have become just another professional venue. Each year, new subjective sports are added and they can’t even make the old ones work. Figure skating is the prime example. Nobody out there can explain why the person who has the best routine at the Olympics is hardly ever the gold medalist. And lets not forget the miscellaneous boxing scandals over the years where athletes from certain countries may as well not even show up because the judges will NEVER award them a medal.
Nope. Sorry. While I DO enjoy watching the Olympics so I get to see other sports besides the 3 ball sports in the US, I wouldn’t cry if they went away. I’d rather see the world championships in those different sports and let the ones that can’t exist without the Olympics fade into history.
i don’t know that i agree with the ultimate prescription in charles lane’s editorial in WAPO today, but i encourage you to read it. i think it’s worth talking about.
The Olympic games are great … unfortunately they become a forum for every minority special interest group to espouse their individual issues … many countries including Russia don’t have the same political correctness that the USA endures so this stuff always crops up at Olympics time 
Let the games begin! I’m looking forward to watching them since football is about over for the season.
Dave
i don’t know that i agree with the ultimate prescription in charles lane’s editorial in WAPO today, but i encourage you to read it. i think it’s worth talking about.
The Olympic games are great … unfortunately they become a forum for every minority special interest group to espouse their individual issues … many countries including Russia don’t have the same political correctness that the USA endures so this stuff always crops up at Olympics time
Let the games begin! I’m looking forward to watching them since football is about over for the season.
Dave
And don’t forget the supreme levels of Olympic Committee corruption and scandal that has plagued every single Olympic games in the modern era . . including those in the US.
i sorta wish they were in the same place every time. invest in the facilities, use them for training, and do away with the waste and corruption. athens for summer, calgary for winter?
I don’t think Lane’s editorial is particularly well written or argued, and has its own biases. On the other hand, I disagree with you: I don’t think systematic dispossession and forced removal of citizens by their governments to make room for Olympic facilities is a “minority special interest group’s individual issue”.
I think that Lane notes a problematic relationship between the Olympics, money/capitalism, and political power, even if he articulates it poorly. It’s not about random special interest groups.
The Olympics have long not been about competition but about delivering audiences to TV networks and exposure to political leaders.
i sorta wish they were in the same place every time. invest in the facilities, use them for training, and do away with the waste and corruption. athens for summer, calgary for winter?
If we have to have them, then something like this makes sense. Maybe some place a little more financially sound than Greece though. Although that could be a good boost to their economy especially with training in between games.
i don’t know that i agree with the ultimate prescription in charles lane’s editorial in WAPO today, but i encourage you to read it. i think it’s worth talking about.
The Olympic games are great … unfortunately they become a forum for every minority special interest group to espouse their individual issues … many countries including Russia don’t have the same political correctness that the USA endures so this stuff always crops up at Olympics time
Let the games begin! I’m looking forward to watching them since football is about over for the season.
Dave
And don’t forget the supreme levels of Olympic Committee corruption and scandal that has plagued every single Olympic games in the modern era . . including those in the US.
If it occurs I won’t like it … but overall it will be a minor detractor … I’m looking forward to watching. If it bother you that much … just don’t watch
Dave
I think that Lane notes a problematic relationship between the Olympics, money/capitalism, and political power, even if he articulates it poorly. It’s not about random special interest groups.
The Olympic games do not suffer from a capitalism problem; they suffer from a cronyism problem.
What would happen to all of these small sports athletes in the USA that only getting funding and recognition because of the olympics? Such as skeleton (that may be spelled wrong) and bobsled to name a few. The federations currently fund olympic sports, one of the reason cyclocross worlds team members have to pay their own way. If the various World Cup type series gain more prestige/acknowledgement from the country’s governing bodies?
There are lots of success stories as well that have meant a lot to some very small sporting countries. I have a friend from Namibia who’s brother was lucky enough to represent them in mtn biking at the last Olympics. A huge thing for both him and his country.
My big question is what would happen with funding that USAC, USAT, etc. use toward funding olympic athletes?
What would happen to all of these small sports athletes in the USA that only getting funding and recognition because of the olympics? Such as skeleton (that may be spelled wrong) and bobsled to name a few. The federations currently fund olympic sports, one of the reason cyclocross worlds team members have to pay their own way. If the various World Cup type series gain more prestige/acknowledgement from the country’s governing bodies?
There are lots of success stories as well that have meant a lot to some very small sporting countries. I have a friend from Namibia who’s brother was lucky enough to represent them in mtn biking at the last Olympics. A huge thing for both him and his country.
My big question is what would happen with funding that USAC, USAT, etc. use toward funding olympic athletes?
None of these sports were invented BECAUSE of the Olympics. And if they were than they would need to reinvent themselves. Heck once country could take a small percentage of the money they spend on one Olympic Games and fund every sport in the Olympics for years to come.
If you eliminate the Olympics how does this effect the university system.
Sounds strange, but there are was a panic going around when wrestling was to be eliminated from the summer Olympics. Without it being an Olympic sport the fear is many universities would drop the sport.
I am not sure there is a men’s Olympic sport than can survive the elimination of the Olympics.
At Ohio State there are 18 male varsity sports – baseball, basketball, cross country, fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, pistol, rifle, soccer, spirit program, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, volleyball, and wrestling.
Baseball, basketball, football, and ice hockey are safe due to TV revenue.
Beyond that the other 14 sports lose money big time and without the implied amateur athletics(Olympic) mission many or most of those would die. Some would live on via alumni donations, but might die off at other schools, which would effectively kill them at tOSU also.
If the college sport dies surely the high school equivalent will die also, which has broad impact.
In general the Olympics are boring, silly, over-hyped, and the TV coverage is slanted towards the female audience, but one must understand the implications of such a big decision.
His argument isn’t really against the Olympics, it’s against any massive international sporting event. The world cup causes just as much disruption, human trafficking, forced evictions, and overspending.
The problem is this:
Massive international sporting events lets you show off your country.Countries with poor human rights/financial reputations (China, Russia, USSR, Nazi Germany, Brazil) want to spend money to improve their reputations and stage-manage people’s views of their countries.So you end up with less savory countries spending massively to win the bid to put on the Olympics/World Cup every 4 years, and stopping at nothing to make sure they’re perfect events. They are the bridezillas of sports. Poor and in camera range? Get out. Prone to blowing yourself up? Get out. Don’t appear like the image they’re trying to put out to the world? Get out.
If you shut down the current big international events (Olympics, World Cup), some other event would spring up in their place. There’s clearly a demand for huge events to watch, and something will either be created or grow into that void.
But then no one would ever watch swimming on TV:(
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His argument isn’t really against the Olympics, it’s against any massive international sporting event. The world cup causes just as much disruption, human trafficking, forced evictions, and overspending.
The problem is this:
Massive international sporting events lets you show off your country.Countries with poor human rights/financial reputations (China, Russia, USSR, Nazi Germany, Brazil) want to spend money to improve their reputations and stage-manage people’s views of their countries.So you end up with less savory countries spending massively to win the bid to put on the Olympics/World Cup every 4 years, and stopping at nothing to make sure they’re perfect events. They are the bridezillas of sports. Poor and in camera range? Get out. Prone to blowing yourself up? Get out. Don’t appear like the image they’re trying to put out to the world? Get out.
If you shut down the current big international events (Olympics, World Cup), some other event would spring up in their place. There’s clearly a demand for huge events to watch, and something will either be created or grow into that void.
Quoted in its entirety to say THIS x1000
“My big question is what would happen with funding that USAC, USAT, etc. use toward funding olympic athletes?”
here’s the flip side of your argument. right now USAT takes several million out of its fund each year to subsidize olympic triathlon. if you did away with the olympics, you wouldn’t need to fund olympic athletes. but if you did away with the olympics, you’d have a lot more money to fund other triathlon ventures.
it could be argued that the olympics helps drive triathlon membership, which helps generate money for that fund that in turn funds olympic athletes. you’d have to poll that. in fact, i think we will poll that. wait a minute… …poll now up, on the right hand side of the page.
yes, there are some sports that would just fade away, because it’s only the olympics that prop them up. i think you have to ask whether those sports are, then, really legitimate sports. if they don’t have enough heft to survive outside of the olympics, maybe they ought to go away. harsh, but, i guess that’s kinda how i look at it.
Okay so I read it. Hadn’t taken notice of Chuck Lane in the past and looked up his CV before reading the oped to try and get a take on - what I expected would be - a political bias (take note of my own pessimism for later reference). I think he he has done a fine job of organizing the scattered complaints that we’ve had and heard about the Olympics into one, tidy place. But his answer is to simple nix the games rather than any suggestion to fix the games - that seems pessimistic to me (my own hypocrisy now fully aware). Couldn’t we reduce the bribes (which I think we’ve begun already), minimize the cronyism/old boy attitude (ie Lindsey Van v. IOC on women’s ski jumping), continue to improve values/morals in youth so that less cheating took place later in life at the Olympics (and other sports and in politics, banking, and every step in every facet of life). Rather than scraping the Olympic games might we continue to try and improve them? I’d like to consider that option.
Ian
“I am not sure there is a men’s Olympic sport than can survive the elimination of the Olympics.”
certainly triathlon could. certainly basketball could. and i do not think the olympic games runs what the NCAA decides and if it does that’s another argument to really rethink what the olympics means. cross country is not in the olympics, but it’s alive and well at every collegiate level. if there were no olympics other international championships would fill the void.
if i had a vote, i would not vote for the olympics to be done away with. but in the last few years we’ve had olympics in china and russia and i just think we shouldn’t do that. unless the IOC agrees to stop providing international platforms for despots, and unless the IOC agrees to scale way, way, way down the list of events that make up the olympics - yes, crushing sports that really probably ought to go away anyway - i’d think hard about the future of the olympics.
while i think being out of the olympics might be a net minus for triathlon, no olympic games whatsoever might be a net plus for triathlon, because it gives worthy sports a little more oxygen, to make their cases.
not an easy topic, but, as i said in the beginning, i think it’s worth talking about.
I bet there’s more than 1 solution to Charlie’s problem. He suggests ending the games, of which i do not agree. However, I do agree that there are problems. Here are some ideas:
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The IOC should draft of Code of Hosting. This includes the required dos and don’ts for a host country. On the list are the willingness to accept peoples of differing cultures without prosecution, whether athletes or spectators, for the duration of the games (which may include pre-and post competition for people who get there early). Countries must agree to adhere. Failure to agree means you don’t get to host. Failure to adhere will net in a forfeit of your athlete’s medals and a possibly for the next 2 Olympiads.
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Participating countries should have a buy-in to help pay for facilities, proportional to the number of sent athletes (or other metric).
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Institute a team/ country penalty for doping positives.