The article above holds the view that the Olympic Spirit still remains and that it continues to be the greatest sporting event. I however hold a contrary viewpoint to this and I aim to write an opposing argument in this blog post. I do agree that the Olympics have been the epitome of sporting competition since the end of the 19th century. However, can we still describe the Olympics in this way today? The Olympics has evolved greatly together with the times and much of the sporting spirit has been lost.
Firstly, The Olympics today cannot even be considered an accurate gauge of a country’s sporting ability. This is a result of the buying over of athletes and foreigners. This capitalization of foreign talent allows richer nations to assemble a team of the world’s best in a particular sport. One example of this is the 1992 Italian Hockey team which consisted of players with very little connection to Italy. An example closer to home would be that of Li Jiawei, the silver-winning table-tennis player. Having spent less than half her life in Singapore, how can we feel that Singapore deserves the silver medal?
It is this “robbing” of talent which turns the Olympics into a competition measuring a country’s wealth.
Secondly, the Olympics are turning into yet another platform for companies to advertise, just like radios and televisions. The Olympics seems to be losing its focus as a sporting competition, with companies sponsoring everything timers to the athletes themselves. One example of this commercialism dominating is in the highly suspicious case of Liu Xiang. Liu Xiang the Chinese Hurdle Star backed out of the race at the last minute, seems to have done so for ulterior motives. Many rumors claim that his sponsor Nike planned for him to back out, so as to save his reputation and not to lose their consumers. His reason also seemed flawed. Why had he not mentioned his 7-year old injury anytime before the race itself? In the future, sponsorship and advertising deals such as this could become an even greater factor in influencing the performance of sportsman. Thus the Olympics will become a farce for the sake of advertising instead of a sporting competition.
Thirdly, many athletes have resorted to underhand tactics to win the Olympics. As a result of their great desire to win, many athletes take a variety of drugs to boost their performance. This makes the competition unfair as it would no longer be a test of the power of the human body. In the year 2000, during the Sydney Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had to remove a shocking total of 35 athletes for doping scandals. Such scandals reduce the sportsmanship of the Olympic athletes.
These three points all go against the vision of Pierre Coubertin, the originator of the modern Olympics. He had wanted for athletes from different nations to engage each other in friendly competition while still representing their country’s pride. The over-competitiveness of the Olympics compounded by the want to win at all costs makes it virtually impossible for the games to be a friendly event. Also, we must ask ourselves how can an athlete possibly represent his country’s pride if he holds a dual citizenship, like many of the “bought-over” athletes?
The sporting spirit is dying. It is up to us to restore it. We must strive for an Olympics which is about nothing but testing the sheer power of the human body.
The time has come for us to move the Olympics away from drug tests and doping scandals to test of human capability.
Article Used
1) http://www.sportingo.com/olympic-games/a9939_despite-politics-nationalism-commercialism-olympics-still-great-sporting-event
No comments:
Post a Comment