When the Olympics started a couple weeks ago, I’ll admit that I was not really into them. I don’t know if it was the crazy time difference, the 12 hour opening ceremony (they always seem that long), or the fact that without a national program to hide the illegal use of steroids, Canada was going to do poorly yet again. There are only so many stories about the US track team that you can read before you feel bad for Ben Johnson getting caught.
At first I did not really watch very much coverage, but as time went by, I resigned myself to the fact that there really wasn’t anything else on. The more I watched though, the more I got interested. However, it wasn’t really the Canadian team that got me interested. I wanted to be excited for Canada, but let’s face it; they didn’t give us much to cheer about. My interested came more from the side stories: the gymnastics judging; the “great” security Athens for $1.5 Billon; and the record number of cheats caught at these games.
I really though no games could match Salt Lake City for controversy after the Sale and Pelletier fiasco, but these games tried there best. In gymnastics it is hard to believe any of the results. In one case the judges awarded a low score and changed it after enough protest from the crowd (reminiscent of “Ask the Audience” from “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”). In another they awarded a mathematically impossible score, but decided to stick by it. Although, nothing tops the fact that they awarded a gold medal to the wrong person due to a error in calculation, but are not willing to do anything to fix the travesty the freely admit to creating. Maybe the IOC should consider offering medals for officiating to increase the quality of judging.
Before the games, one of the big concerns about this Olympics was the security of the athletes. Terrorism was thought to be a problem, and as such, $1.5 Billion was spent to make sure everyone was safe. Early in the games, a British journalist exposed holes in security by leaving suspicious packages throughout the venues. This was quickly brushed off because the packages were not actually dangerous (they just could have been). Then a Canadian made a splash (literally) by diving into the pool during a competition. We were then told the security would be further tightened to prevent such happenings. However, on the last day of competition, Vanderlei de Lima basically had his chances of winning the marathon destroyed when a protestor ran out into the street and dragged him into the crowd. Right about now I’d say the Greek’s are trying to figure out how to get their money back.
On a brighter note, there have been more than 20 cheats caught at these Olympics. This may seem like a negative point, but the more people caught, the more medals that will go to people who deserve them. That being said, the IOC and WADA will always have to strive to be ahead of the cheaters. There have been a lot of drugs in the past for which it has taken far too long to produce tests to accurately detect. If the process of catching drug users gets better over time, maybe we’ll get back to being able to enjoy a world record performance without actually worrying if the athlete is the real thing.
With that, I will end with 5 things I learned from watching the Olympics on the CBC:
1) According to Tim Horton’s, their coffee mug is more recognizable than the Canadian Flag.
2) There does not exist a decent recording of the Canadian national anthem in Greece.
3) In Men’s Vault you get at least 9.5 if you feet hit the mat first. It doesn’t matter if your ass is the next body part to touch.
4) No matter how much fun it is to annihilate the competition, sooner or later, NBA players just get bored.
5) Canada would win significantly more medals if we were to enter “The Little Blue Cow” in all events.