Should Olympics be abolished?



My partner is a huge sports fan.  He lives for sports.  He finds so many metaphors about life in sports.  As a child, he went to the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.  Every time I think I have heard all of his memories of that trip, he lights as he recalls another.  One time we were on vacation and went to a sports bar for dinner.  We didn't know this when we entered but once we were seated, the waitress had a sports trivia question and if we answered correctly we would get 10% off our bill.  The question seemed really hard and my partner hesitated and I thought he didn't know.  It turned out, not only did he know, but knew even more about this than we even asked and was giving the waitress more information than she needed.  She finally said, "alright already, you got it" and walked away.  Then, we got a flag for our table indicating we got the trivia question right.  It was pretty exciting.  I waved the flag proudly as if I had any idea of the answer. 

I was eager to get his feedback on Russia not competing in the upcoming winter Olympics.  I was pretty shocked when he said that he felt the Olympics had outlived its original values and should be abolished.   

The original goals and values have been tweeked over time.  There are currently seven values associated with the Olympics:  Friendship, Respect, Excellence, Determination, Inspiration, Courage, and Equality.  The goal of the Olympic movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised without discrimination of any kind in a spirit of friendship, solidarity, and fair play...Assistance to develop Sport for all.  

The more I read, the more I think that my partner is right and that the Olympics may have outlived itself.  

Certainly, the Olympics is big business now.  Just putting a bid together to get the Olympics is big business and it is supposed to be a huge economic boom to the host city.  But, that is changing as well.  In order to get the Olympics, a city must invest a huge investment into building venues, etc.  Montreal supposedly is still paying the debt for hosting the Olympics.  A gold medal often leads to several endorsement deals for the athletes.  The pressure of the almighty dollar is more than background noise now and takes away from the actual games.  Since there is so much economics riding on these games, it increases the pressure to win at any cost.  When there is that much pressure, there also exists pressure to cheat.  We have scandals about cheating in all countries.  No one can walk the moral high ground on this one.  

We now have a global village which means we are all connected.  We no longer need the Olympics to connect us, in reality, the Olympics are now dividing us.  

The Olympics used to be something that happened every four years so it was something anticipated and exciting.  Now that the winter and summer Olympics have separated and we have one or the other every two years, it seems the Olympics are always happening, so it doesn't seem like such a big deal any more.  

Plus, over the last few decades we seem to be inventing sports in order to create more champions.  Don't get me wrong, I cheered along with everybody when Jon Montgomery won the gold and walked down the streets with a pitcher of beer.  It was an exciting Canadian moment.  However, skeleton?  This is a sport that is typically done by children?   And, if you are good at skeleton does it translate into any marketable skills?   I'm sure there is skill involved but as a viewer, I don't understand it.  Even the sports commentators have a problem with this one.  

The Olympics are also in addition to the other world championships that are held in most sports.  So, they are not required to bring people together anymore.  

Perhaps the world would be better off by putting the money invested in the Olympics to invest in their own countries to offer programs such as affordable housing, relieving food insecurity, paying off the deficits, etc.  

I love watching the Olympics, so it really pains to me to agree with my partner.  Maybe the Olympics should be abolished or atleast we should start the dialogue on how we can ensure the Olympic movement still achieves the guiding principles that drives the movement.  

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