Been watching the Olympic Games in Tokyo and can’t help but wonder why athletes or countries they represent, stack up the medals or consider victory as prowess. You only have to look at the mismatch in funding, training facilities and incentives across some of the participants and the whole thing becomes quite laughable.
The Russians were recently banned (and are still only just allowed to participate under a bizarre arrangement) because they were accused of doping. And I presume that was supposed to have given their athletes undue advantages? But we have countries without any funding or facilities competing against athletes from countries with ample funding, facilities etc. and that is not an advantage? (undeniably punctuated by the odd fairytale of the likes of poor Brazilian kids doing well in football or the like..)
Laughable…
It is exactly what is wrong with the world today. Some define these convenient rules (same reason American jails are filled with supposed drug dealers while the people who buy and consume the drugs are free and living a great life). We create sports, come up with rules, the Russians supposedly find a way to tilt the scale their way, but hey, that’s not acceptable, but when an athlete from a poor country who has to keep a full time job to feed his family and can only afford to practice at the weekend competes against an athlete from a wealthy country who practices full time and has huge funding, special kit etc., oh, that’s ok. It’s a level playing field as long as the same wealthy folks win all the medals and hey, that is a demonstration of their superiority and apparently, the countries they represent are as such, awesome at those sports
Put athletes under the same conditions, same facilities, same level of stress (I.e. without some worrying about how to feed their families) and you will find a very different medal table before you.
So, what really is the purpose of these events?
Look at football: some teams buy the best footballers on earth, pay them huge sums, provide excellent facilities to train, and then we adulate them for their success… DAFT ain’t it?
But it really is, a very accurate representation of life, our societies and the world we live in and I don’t mean just today. Since time immemorial. We must have winners and losers, rich and poor, celebrities and their groupies etc. So, why do we pretend we wish for equality or an equal society, where there is no discrimination and we’re all living happy and peaceful lives?
There are thousands participating in all sorts of sports globally; golfers, tennis players etc. If you enjoy a sport, you get into it. You don’t have to be world number 1 (defeating folks who could be a lot better than you, had they the same facilities etc.). It’s like recent billionaire space explorers (Bezos, Branson..), they can afford it, so, why not? it only becomes a little strange, when the same people start waxing lyrical about climate change and saving the planet while burning tank-loads of fuel to hang out in space, on trips that are not necessarily about saving the planet – but, do these billionaires owe the world anything? probably not, and they do have a bunch of charities they fund and do more than I could ever do for the world- but still, what a colossal waste of money that could feed every kid on some continents and we do also have hungry children even here in the UK right?. As for sports, it was in existence well before these farcical global events and will most likely be there if we don’t have footballers on £500,000 a week wages or Olympic Games where some feel they need world domination to underline their love for their chosen sport….
People want to go on holidays and have others scrub-up after them…. (would the scrubbers not be on holiday themselves if they weren’t disadvantaged?)
It is very easy to industrialise all parts of the world, educate everyone, level-up society etc. The only reason it has not been done and will never be done is the same reason we cheer as these ill-matched athletes win medals at events such as the Olympics….
But we will never admit it. Not even to ourselves…
The reaction, when Qatar’s high jump star proposed sharing gold with his Italian competitor tells it all….
There will always be those having to fight for equality and it will remain so till doomsday…
Knowledge can improve the world we live in 