r/GlobalTalk • u/I_beat_thespians • Aug 03 '21
[Question] [Global] What are your thoughts on the Olympics and/or your country's performance in them? Question
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u/prooijtje The Netherlands Aug 03 '21
I never care beforehand but then end up watching them anyway. Especially athletics are just really fun to watch for me. I also sometimes like to read up on the gold medalists: Was this their first time winning gold, or are they defending a title? What is their background? Might this be the height of their career or are they just getting started?
I don't particularly care about my country's performance in them, except for the ice skating events during the winter olympics. I like how we tend to dominate those, but also wonder how that will change in the future now that our winters are becoming less and less cold.
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u/AzertyKeys France Aug 03 '21
The idea came from a pure philanthropic ideal of bringing back an ancient idealised tradition and sharing a message of peace through sports and festive events to the entire world. I think the Baron de Coubertin would be spinning in his grave if he knew what the IOC had done to his creation
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u/JakubSwitalski Aug 03 '21
Can you elaborate on what you think the IOC has been doing wrong?
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u/Violent_Violette Canada Aug 04 '21
tl;dr is they're an incredibly corrupt organization (near fifa levels) that consistently do significant harm to the host country while lining their own pockets.
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u/Fullonski Aug 04 '21
The initial plan was for countries to be irrelevant, it was athlete against athlete, then it morphed into this nation v nation juggernaut
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u/squirrelcat88 Aug 03 '21
I usually love the Olympics, look forward to them, and watch a lot, but this year I’m not watching at all. I don’t agree with holding it in the middle of a pandemic, in a country with one of the oldest populations, where the vaccination rate is still quite low. The IOC had Japan over a barrel and I’m kind of disgusted by the whole thing. That said I would also feel sorry for the athletes if it had been cancelled.
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u/floating-point- usa Aug 03 '21
This is how I feel, too - except I am following them, or the highlights at least. It was absolutely unethical to coerce Tokyo into hosting in the middle of a pandemic. This was a blatant example of corporations (those with broadcasting rights) choosing profits over public health. However, since the athletes are there already, I really do like hearing their stories, upsets, victories, and kinda can’t help but root for my favs. We live in a deeply flawed world.
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u/Fullonski Aug 04 '21
Australia. I live the Olympics and I love my country's performance in them. I just hate the overly jingoistic media coverage of the games. So corny. It becomes unpatriotic to say you'd rather watch the world's best at one sport than an Australian who's going to finish 27th in an obscure sport. The way the media sucks up to the swimmers in particular is nauseating.
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u/elpablete Aug 03 '21
Or boxing competitor (from Colombia) basically punished his fellow boxer from Japan yesterday, they japanese guy ended up leaving in a wheelchair from the match. Still the judges awarded the win to the Japanese competitor in a 4:1 result.
Basically I don't understand most of the rules of the competitions
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u/fedemasa Argentina Aug 03 '21
We were robbed on boxing too. In his first round, one of our fighters knocked a USA one in the second round that was supposed to be the gold medal contender.
He was superior in 3 rounds and they end up giving to the American because fuck latinos in boxing
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u/Ign4cho Aug 03 '21
He only dominated the third round, round 1 and 2 the Usa boxer was superior for sure.
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u/urdivine Aug 03 '21
I don't care as much about the nationalities as about the different sports. Never In my life I watched this much Sport, esp. seeing Sports which I'm interested is beautiful, Skating, Surfing, Sportclimbing, Volleyball, Judo... And all the other things are interesting just to gaze at the performances from time to time.
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u/the-other-otter Norway Aug 03 '21
On one hand it is a giant waste of time and money, as someone else here said, on the other hand it is a lot better than war, and I think this kind of identify with your country and do a peaceful competition is very important for people*.
I don't really know much about it, but isn't it organised in a very undemocratic way?
Particularly the "faster, stronger, higher" competitions seems silly. At some point we are going to reach the human body's limits. In reality they are just competing about who was born with the best genes. Football and other sports like that is different, since it has too many uncertainties and you need strategy and luck as well as strength and smarts.
And I also think that money poured into the training is very often what gives results. The only reason why Norway keeps winning the various skiing competitions in winter. I don't know how it would be in the Olympics and football, if only people who were born there for example, were allowed to play for that country/the club from that area (like Manchester). Would the support of the clubs become different? Maybe even stronger, even when the clubs are not doing so well?
That particular way out of poverty for the lucky few from poor countries who move to do sports in wealthy countries, will be closed, but maybe other opportunities will arise, for more people than just those few top players. Just some speculation from me.
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u/Wild_Marker Argentina Aug 03 '21 edited Aug 03 '21
I never really cared much for it but I've been going to a gym these days where they have it always on the TV and it got me thinking.
I was looking at a race, I think it was women's 100m or something. The announcer was presenting the racers and half the participants were Ethiopian, yet none of them were competing for Ethiopia. That's when it kinda dawned on me that looking at the Olympics as a contest of countries is silly and toxic, since the country who wins (at least in those events) is whoever can find, import and train the best athlete. It's almost like a dog show.
I think it's nice as a competition of individuals, the strongest the fastest etc, that's nice and all. Kinda makes me wish they didn't compete as country representatives. But if they didn't, there probably wouldn't be any Olypics, since all the money poured on them is meant for countries to measure dicks against each other. But if you ask me who "wins" the olympics? I'd just say Africa.
I guess what I'm saying is that it gave me a bunch to think about. People who draw national pride from it... I wouldn't say they're right to do that. But again, these are still the strongest and fastest etc people of the world and they do train very hard to get there, so one should not simply dismiss their achievements because of the silly politics around them.
Oh and my country um... I guess they performed as usual? Team sports are our forte, and some individual sports have a few notable figures. That's as much as I can tell.
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u/Rosveen Aug 04 '21
That's when it kinda dawned on me that looking at the Olympics as a contest of countries is silly and toxic, since the country who wins (at least in those events) is whoever can find, import and train the best athlete. It's almost like a dog show.
You realize that people can move to different countries or have mixed heritage, right? The vast majority of olympic athletes actually live in or come from the country they represent.
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u/Wild_Marker Argentina Aug 04 '21
Of course, but the competition is framed as between countries, and yet all these countries have athletes... from the same one country which I guess has the fastest people? So that's where I'm getting at, it kinda makes you think about why the hell do we keep framing it as country vs country.
Again, it was just something to think about, not trying to make any hard statements here.
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u/Rosveen Aug 04 '21
I just don't think it's such a big problem as you make it out to be. I've been watching the Olympics for years and I can't recall many situations where something like this happened: an event swept by athletes originally from the same country/region different from the one they represent, that also couldn't be explained by normal migration. By and large, people really represent nations they belong to.
I'm not sure which event you're talking about in this case - it'd be easier to see what you mean if I could look it up. :) Women's 100m was swept by Jamaica and anyway, Ethiopians are long distance runners, so it had to be one of those. Women's 5k had Ethiopian-born athletes representing the Netherlands (arrived there as a refugee as a teenager) and Israel (received Israeli citizenship after marrying an naturalized Israeli citizen who also moved there as a teen). That... doesn't feel like poaching Ethiopians just to win sports championships. Especially considering that Ethiopia itself always sends its own athletes to the Olympics and routinely wins medals.
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u/Wild_Marker Argentina Aug 04 '21
Well no, of course it's not a big problem. Like I said, just something that got me thinking.
Again, I don't pay much attention to these things. I was just making conversation.
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u/Ign4cho Aug 03 '21
We’re underperforming for sure. So far it’s one of our worst Olympics in ages.
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u/Wild_Marker Argentina Aug 03 '21
I think we spent all our sports mana on the Copa America this year.
Totally worth it though.
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u/Ign4cho Aug 03 '21
The key is to focus on the sports that we have a shot at.
Vamos pumas que los banco desde cemento!! (?
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u/Wolfkillerq Canada Aug 04 '21
I honestly just kinda forgot the Olympics were happening. I also haven't noticed very many people talk about it where I am (Nova Scotia, Canada)
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u/TohaHeavyIndustries_ Germany Aug 04 '21
I like the idea and enjoy the thought of a peaceful contest of nations, but all the politics, corruption, doping surrounding it every time have soured it a lot to me. And I really don't care if Germany performs well or not, I mostly support Taiwanese athletes.
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u/hajamieIi Aug 05 '21
Sports is just collectivism and the stats say it can be attributed to causing financial crisis in the 90s
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u/fedemasa Argentina Aug 03 '21
Sadly, expected. Only disappointment was basketball as this team was without chemistry at all.
But the men volleyball team is doing wonders and made 40 million people wake up at 5 AM to watch a sport no one does
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u/Canadairy Aug 03 '21
Ifindthem annoying, and would be pleased if they folded. Failing that, they should make all th e swimming races freestyle. There's no 100m hopping or skipping races to go with the 100m dash.
Canada's performance is fine, i guess.
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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '21
People try to apply the logic of athletics to swimming, and it doesn’t work like that. There’s 1 running form, there are 4 swimming forms. If the Olympics didn’t have all 4 strokes, it wouldn’t be the most important swimming competition in the world, and you’d be arbitrarily excluding many many great swimmers. There’s no international skipping competition, there is international butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke competition.
It does kind of make the medal count not too important. Like the fact that Michael Phelps won the most medals is only possible because he’s a swimmer, and the only reason Australia is doing so well in the medal tally at the moment is because we’re a strong swimming nation.
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u/Canadairy Aug 04 '21
Bud, if i could I'd shut down the whole circus. You think i give a solitary fuck about excluding strong swimmers, or it being the most important competition?
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u/Alger_Hiss Aug 03 '21
Too many swim events, and fuck equestrian and sailing. The old boys club can keep it at the club.
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u/SkyLotus85 Aug 03 '21
Regardless of country, I enjoy seeing the looks of happiness and success of the winners.
Shout out to Italy and Qatar on the joint gold medal for the Men's High Jump! 🥳🥳