Blog
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The Olympics: Have they run their course? I hope not
In 1904 the first Olympic Games ever held in the U.S. took place in St. Louis in a day when just getting to the games was a several week affair for some athletes and professional sports were just barely getting started. Gradually over the years the Olympics have mirrored the political problems in the world and have been used numerous times as political chess pieces in order to call attention to what is wrong, or maybe what is right, around the world. The U.S. has been as guilty as most countries in this regard but that part of the debate was held in the 80s and better left that way.
Some of that politicalizing (is that a word?) led to some very interesting competition between us and the Soviets. Every match from water polo to track to weight-lifting to basketball took on a "death match" mentality. Their controversial defeat of our basketball team in the 70s and our Miracle on Ice hockey victory at Lake Placid were the highlights but every medal was hotly contested. I don't miss the Cold War, and I don't miss the Soviet Union, but I miss watching that competition.
Personally, I wish the U.S. still used only amateurs in the Olympics. It led to some mismatches when going up against the Europeans and Soviets, since we were competing against their professional level players with our amateurs, but I still liked it better. If the American NHL players, instead of U.S. college players, had defeated the Soviets at Lake Placid I don't know if I would even remember it. The Soviets were looked upon as the best team in the world, at any level, but lost that night.
Once August 8 arrives I will watch at least some of the Olympics and maybe a lot of it. Some of that will depend on how the networks decide what is telecast here and how the 13 hour CDT difference plays out.
There are always those special moments you weren't expecting and those odd sports that you never watch at any other time. Sometimes you get swept up in it and the games become much more special than you had anticipated. Maybe 2008 will be one of those years.
Competition Schedule
Posted by CoachT at 10:10 PM · 1788 Views · COMMENTS
Some of that politicalizing (is that a word?) led to some very interesting competition between us and the Soviets. Every match from water polo to track to weight-lifting to basketball took on a "death match" mentality. Their controversial defeat of our basketball team in the 70s and our Miracle on Ice hockey victory at Lake Placid were the highlights but every medal was hotly contested. I don't miss the Cold War, and I don't miss the Soviet Union, but I miss watching that competition.
Personally, I wish the U.S. still used only amateurs in the Olympics. It led to some mismatches when going up against the Europeans and Soviets, since we were competing against their professional level players with our amateurs, but I still liked it better. If the American NHL players, instead of U.S. college players, had defeated the Soviets at Lake Placid I don't know if I would even remember it. The Soviets were looked upon as the best team in the world, at any level, but lost that night.
Once August 8 arrives I will watch at least some of the Olympics and maybe a lot of it. Some of that will depend on how the networks decide what is telecast here and how the 13 hour CDT difference plays out.
There are always those special moments you weren't expecting and those odd sports that you never watch at any other time. Sometimes you get swept up in it and the games become much more special than you had anticipated. Maybe 2008 will be one of those years.
Competition Schedule
