I place my lack of productivity this week on the fact that the Olympics have been on. I find myself staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning watching the evening’s events. Lucky for me, I have the week off. I could go on and on about how the Olympics have caused me to waste a week, but that’s not what has me reaching for the Lysol.
I can remember growing up watching the Olympics and cheering on the likes of Carl Lewis, Greg Louganis (look out for that diving board), and Mary Lou Retton. The sheer dominance displayed by the USA, probably due to the fact that the Soviet Union, Cuba, and East Germany boycotted, in 1984 was enough to make you want to go out and buy Stars and Stripes workout pants. Now? I’m not so sure.
I just finished watching the highlights of (Professional Tennis Player) Thomas Blake defeat (Current World #1 Professional Tennis Player) Roger Federer. This was after I watched the U.S. Men’s Soccer team (or the MLS All-Star team) lose to Nigeria. But it was not before I watched the U.S. Men’s Basketball team (aka the American born NBA All-Stars) dominate host country China and Angola. Angola? WTF? And that’s just on the men’s side.
Where is the true amateur spirit of the Olympics? Where did it go? I miss it.
Now, I can’t help but think that if the United States cared about Archery and Kayaking as much as Football and Baseball, then we would recognize our “amateur” olympians as the pros in their sports that they already are. The fact is, if you get paid $5 or $5 million for participating in a sport, then it’s hard to say that you are an amateur. From what I can tell, by watching the commercials, if you work at the Home Depot and participate in the Olympics then you are still an amateur. Or maybe it’s that you have to have a “real” job that pays your bills to be an amateur.
This ultimately leads me to this conclusion: Here in the United States, if you participate in a sport that fans are willing to pay ungodly amounts of money to go see, then you are a professional. If you participate in a sport that causes people to say, “You play that sport…Why?”, then you are an amateur. This also leads me to believe that if you are an amateur athlete then you will have to go through the Olympic Trials to make the team, and if you are an “amateur” athlete, you just have to affirmatively reply to the “Hey Kobe, wanna play in the Olympics?” mass email that Coach K sent out to the NBA.
The double standard, alone, leads me to wonder why I find myself staying up all night to watch this. I haven’t even started in on the gymnastics (and other sports) factories that China and other countries have established in order to manufacture Olympic gold. My only true realization is that my patriotism must be taking precedence to my cynicism; and like the olympians in Beijing, I am forced to breathe in the foul air that is the Olympic spirit.
Dig Deep!
