"Olympic$" - Commentary by Tony Seton

Olympics

This may sound unpatriotic but I haven't been much interested in the number of gold medals American athletes have won as compared to other countries. Indeed, the whole meaning of the Olympics has been corrupted by money and jingoism, just like most modern professional sports. For instance, it used to be that only amateurs were allowed to compete. Now professional athletes do. I suppose in a sense that makes sense, considering the amount of money some countries are funneling into their Olympics training, but it ain’t the same somehow.

Consider that China spends billions on training programs, grabbing children from their families and putting them through years of training. With as many people as they have and their apparent willingness to write a blank check, what's to stop them from winning every medal in every competition. Along with other countries, the incessant training and preparation has become almost mindless. Like the obsessive tuning of a car engine or a violin. Doesn’t it bother you that these young people have spent years being turned into machines?

American taxpayers pony up $140 million every year for our Olympics training, and that seems like a remarkable misinvestment of precious resources. As a New York Times editorial noted, "If we are looking to invest in sports, we would be wiser to spend money on daily gym classes and after-school athletic programs. That would not produce a large crop of Olympians, but it would help combat the growing obesity epidemic among American youngsters and yield health benefits worth more than Olympic gold."

Another issue is that of the meaning of winning. As addressed in an earlier America Back on Track dealing with qualifying races, competitors were making the cut on the basis of a hundredth of a second. Such is also the case separating some the gold medal winners from the silver. Michael Phelps won a swimming meet with at time of 50.58 seconds against the second place finisher's time of 50.57 seconds. Dara Torres, the 41-year-old five-time Olympian lost the top place in the 50-meter freestyle also by one hundredth of a second.

That time difference separating the gold from the silver is virtually infinitesimal and kinda meaningless, except, of course, to the two medalists. If people are competing that tightly, to declare one a winner over the other is inane. There should be a minimum margin of victory; otherwise there should be a sharing of the honors.

When the Greeks started this whole thing way back when, the competition included non-brawn events like prose and poetry. Imagine such in today's world, hohoho. They also competed naked, a rule which if applied would have had our president at volleyball courtside for all the women’s trial heats.

Competition has its place in training one’s body but it’s also important to consider the values that are represented by the Olympics today. After all, what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom is not our strength, speed, or the agility of our bodies but the alacrity of our minds. Wouldn’t it be grand if we were instead pushing our young people to come up with the proverbial cure to cancer or discoveries that would reverse global warming?

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.