Let’s hope sport wins

by Mike

I like watching great sporting occasions because what you should be seeing are athletes and performers at the top of their game, trying to show that they can be the best in the world.

With that in mind, I have been some of the Olympics from Beijing with interest. Athletics is a strange sport in that it is hard to know if it can be taken seriously anymore. Previously people you used to believe in and that promised you they wouldn’t take the easy way out, have turned out to do just that.

We have athletes taking performance enhancing drugs and then taking other drugs to try and mask the fact that they are taking performance enhancing drugs. An Irish athlete had previously claimed he took something to ensure a “level playing field”. When someone comes out and says that , does the notion of sport and competition fly out the window and does the prospect of the big lucrative contract dangling in front of a person fly straight back into view?

I want the Olympics to be a big success, I want it to be something that can show the world that sport can be produced and shown in the light that is positive. I want there not to be controversy, I want the winners to really be the winners and be clean.

What I want as a fan of sport and what I get can be too separate things.

The Olympics should not be politically motivated. I admire those who are protesting about Tibet, without taking it too far, but the Olympics has gone on through rain, hail, shine and wars. For decades people have turned up to watch a spectacle and check their political view at the door. After it finishes, let the world have a view of China and what it is doing to Tibet and hopefully after all of this something will be done.

Right now though, let’s hope we can enjoy the Olympics and not be embarrassed by it.

Monday, August 11th, 2008 and is filed under Thoughts & Questions, Views on News.