Boycott Olympics!

[Iskaral Pust]

As cereal boxes once again try to feed us some Santa Claus fantasy of the eternal nobility of the Olympic ideal, I'm calling for a boycott by erstwhile viewers until (if?) the Olympics can adopt some form less blatantly conflicting with that Olympic ideal:

- the corruption of the IOC in selecting host cities, plus the lack of equity or transparency in distributing revenues
- the exploitation of host cities/countries, especially as unaffordable, jingoist propaganda boondoogles, creating graft for cronies at the expense of the local populace
- the widespread doping among athletes, plus the vast hypocrisy and corruption in the anti-doping programs
- the crony selection committees and blatant favor-trading in qualitatively evaluated sports like gymnastics, figure skating, etc
- the constant expansion of the games to professional sports and athletes in a naked grab for TV viewership and media stardust, while hypocritically demanding "amateur" status in other disciplines
- the unfair "amateur" standard in countries with differing levels of state support for athletes
- athletes as mute and disposable props for patriotic posturing

Basically the only good thing about the IOC is that they make FIFA look very slightly less bad by comparison.

Join the boycott.  Add your gripe here.
 

[Howdyphillip]

I have actively watched every Olympic games of my lifetime, and I will not be stopping now. Yes, there are issues that should be addressed, but overall I think the spirit of gamesmanship and untidy is a good thing in the world, and I want to be a small part of that as a viewer.

[williamjm]

36 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

- the constant expansion of the games to professional sports and athletes in a naked grab for TV viewership and media stardust, while hypocritically demanding "amateur" status in other disciplines

- the unfair "amateur" standard in countries with differing levels of state support for athletes

Are there are any amateur sports other than boxing still in the Olympics? As far as I know all the others allow professionals, but there might be some I don't know about.

[Guess who's back]

lol. not going to happen. 

[Maithanet]

39 minutes ago, williamjm said:

Are there are any amateur sports other than boxing still in the Olympics? As far as I know all the others allow professionals, but there might be some I don't know about.

Well, there are a fair number of Olympic sports for which there are no professionals...like luge or pentathalon.

[Veltigar]

They still don't have jousting as an Olympic Event, that pisses me off as well.

1 hour ago, Howdyphillip said:

I have actively watched every Olympic games of my lifetime, and I will not be stopping now. Yes, there are issues that should be addressed, but overall I think the spirit of gamesmanship and untidy is a good thing in the world, and I want to be a small part of that as a viewer.

It's the one place Zach Snyder can't touch you  

[A Horse Named Stranger]

1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said:

As cereal boxes once again try to feed us some Santa Claus fantasy of the eternal nobility of the Olympic ideal, I'm calling for a boycott by erstwhile viewers until (if?) the Olympics can adopt some form less blatantly conflicting with that Olympic ideal:

- the corruption of the IOC in selecting host cities, plus the lack of equity or transparency in distributing revenues
- the exploitation of host cities/countries, especially as unaffordable, jingoist propaganda boondoogles, creating graft for cronies at the expense of the local populace
- the widespread doping among athletes, plus the vast hypocrisy and corruption in the anti-doping programs
- the crony selection committees and blatant favor-trading in qualitatively evaluated sports like gymnastics, figure skating, etc
- the constant expansion of the games to professional sports and athletes in a naked grab for TV viewership and media stardust, while hypocritically demanding "amateur" status in other disciplines
- the unfair "amateur" standard in countries with differing levels of state support for athletes
- athletes as mute and disposable props for patriotic posturing

Basically the only good thing about the IOC is that they make FIFA look very slightly less bad by comparison.

Join the boycott.  Add your gripe here.
 

I will try to go down that list. 

Points one and two, yes. They are somewhat connected. Because most "democratic states" (I will leave that term open for interpretation) are no longer that much into hosting the Olympics. They are expensive and not particularly attractive to host financially. Ironically the more amateurish events are particularly unattractive, because there's not such a huge audience, and you still need to build an arena for those "marginal sports". 

The widespread doping has been around for at least a good 20 years. Probably longer (check Flo-Jo and Ben Johnson for instance). Just that stuff gets dragged open into the public now thanks to Russians. So to quit watching now, seems a bit abitrary to me. I mean if anybody seriously believes Usain Bolt is running the 100 metres in 9.6 seconds with just mother nature aiding him, while some of his toughest competitors faced doping bans in the past (likesay Gatlin, Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell), then I might have some real estate on the sun to sell... If you want clean games you would probably need to scratch the entire track field sports from the Olympics. But that's what tv viewers want, and that's where the money is. They want to watch some juiced up dude setting a new world record. Nobody is watching syncrhonized swimming. Well at least nobody I know.

Not sure what you mean by crony selection committees. 

The amateur status. That has been somewhat of a farce for as long as I can remember for most sports. Just the way the athletes gets supported varies. In the SU the athletes were basically paid wages by the state. In the US those "amateur" athletes are basically running on sport scholarships at colleges, and if they become succesful commercials. In Germany a lot of those athletes are in some sporting company within the army (or police forces). Again, synchronized swimming might be the event to watch, if you want a more amateurish setting. 

The expansion/money grab thing. Well, you can look at it another way. It generates more viewers, especially younger viewers might get drawn into sports they would not watch otherwise. The last real expansion I can think of, was the Winter Olympics including some sports from the x-games. Also, if that's the kinda thing young athletes do these days, incorporating those into the Olympics just seems logical to me. 

[Veltigar]

13 minutes ago, Notone said:

then I might have some real estate on the sun to sell...

I was thinking of acquiring a nice, quiet little vacation home. However, a condominium at the seaboard just isn't enough to keep up with the Joneses anymore. How competitive are your prices?  

EDIT: Mind you, I would appreciate a discount. I know several Nigerian princes who would surely be interested in an opportunity like this... if you catch my drift  

[Iskaral Pust]

C'mon sheeple, this could be the political movement that actually achieves something.  The DoJ has their hands full with FIFA.  We need people power to stop the IOC.

I didn't even mention all the fawning, saccharine interviews with Olympians that are intended to ennoble these brotastic jocks who loaf around all day and live in some weird narcissistic bubble where it's OK to devote their entire youth and long term career opportunities to a one-off success at a glorified track meet.

[HokieStone]

6 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

C'mon sheeple, this could be the political movement that actually achieves something.  The DoJ has their hands full with FIFA.  We need people power to stop the IOC.

I didn't even mention all the fawning, saccharine interviews with Olympians that are intended to ennoble these brotastic jocks who loaf around all day and live in some weird narcissistic bubble where it's OK to devote their entire youth and long term career opportunities to a one-off success at a glorified track meet.

And by the use of the word "sheeple", you completely invalidate anything else you might have said.  As incoherent and rambling as it was.

So, no...I won't be boycotting.  I'll be watching as much as I can.

[baxus]

No, I won't be boycotting the Olympics.

There most definitely are problems and this whole Russian doping scandal is a major clusterfuck that could've been handled properly and in a timely fashion, not left in a drawer for 3 years until a fortnight before the Olympic Games start. IOC will have a lot of questions to answer and I actually hope Russians take on the role of wrongfully accused (even though there's a huge pile of undeniable evidence against them) and push the matter as far as possible so we may get to see as much dirt uncovered.

12 hours ago, williamjm said:

Are there are any amateur sports other than boxing still in the Olympics? As far as I know all the others allow professionals, but there might be some I don't know about.

Unless I've been misinformed (which may be the case, since I don't follow boxing that closely), pros can actually enter Olympic boxing tournament. They don't because international professional federations would strip them of their titles and/or punish them in some other way.

[DireWolfSpirit]

I will be watching and look forward to the Games in Rio.

Am especially anticipating Usain Bolt in the 100m, 200m, and the 4x100 relay, hoping he will add to the legend with 3 more Golds!

[DunderMifflin]

Done, I don't care about watching the shittiest competitions that could possibly be imagined. So I'll make it a point to not watch for whatever this cause is.

Guy runs faster than everyone else- no thanks

USA beats up crappy basketball teams- pass

Guy jumps into a pool? Nah

Now that I think of it, Olympics are shit.

Badminton???

[Which Tyler]

I like sport; so I'll be watching; and be watching as much as I can get my hands (well, eyes) on.

[Criston of House Shapper]

I actually boykotted the Sochi-Winter-Olympics, but that was due to all of the human rights stuff and because it didn't make sense to host them in a sub-tropical setting in the first place. I will also definitely boykott the FIFA World Cup in Qatar because of the horrendous conditions for the foreign construction workers. I don't think our sources of entertainment should be built on the graves of thousands of innocent people.

In this case though, I am going to watch as much as possible, because the conditions for the civilians just aren't bad enough to justify a boykott, or at least I haven't heard too many atrocious stories. I think the doping-thing is unfortunate, but what are you going to do? I think, that making an example of the Russians could really change things, but maybe it won't. I don't care much about corruption. What does it matter, if some rich person gave money to some other rich person in order to buy the rights for the games? That doesn't affect my personal life in any way, so why would I care? There's evidence, that the 2006 World Cup in Germany was bought, but that tournament was awesome, so why would I give a shit?

But since the time zone is way off, I'm still debating whether I should even bother watching any of the athletics/swimming-competitions, since all of the finals are in the middle of the night for me. I might stick to rowing or some other sports I don't know anything about.

[dbunting]

For me I will watch a lot of the stuff. The time zone is closer to mine this year so I should see most of it as it happens. Also, I work for a Brazillian owned company and have heard a lot about Brazil over the last five years or so. Living conditions are pretty bad and most items are priced so high that you can't afford them. Clothing for example is usually purchased on payment plan, seriously, a payment plan to buy clothing.

So that coupled with the water quality concerns and it adds up to an intriguing spectacle that I am mildly interested in. Rooting for Usain Bolt, Micheal Phelps and Missy Franklin, want to see what they can do. Phelps and Bolt setting the bar higher and Franklin setting a new standard.

 

As to the Russian stuff. Why did they wait until now to retest so many samples? Is there new techniques that were just developed or just no catching a new drug?

[baxus]

25 minutes ago, dbunting said:

As to the Russian stuff. Why did they wait until now to retest so many samples? Is there new techniques that were just developed or just no catching a new drug?

The problem with Russian athletes that are suspended is not that they were caught doping but that the tests they took can not be verified not trusted since Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), who has performed those tests, has been caught switching samples. That's why athletes who have been tested by other anti-doping agencies can compete.

WADA and IOC have been made familiar with that problem in July 2013, but chose not to take any action until recently.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Well, and that German midget at the head of the IOC (Bach) has banned Yuliya Igorevna Stepanova from the olympics. Stepanova and her husband were the Russian whistelblower that dragged the whole amount of that Russian doping clusterfuck out into thte open, and who had to leave Russia with heir family and is now living in the US.

2 hours ago, dbunting said:

As to the Russian stuff. Why did they wait until now to retest so many samples? Is there new techniques that were just developed or just no catching a new drug?

This whole scandal only became public because there was a whisteblower (Stepanova and her husband Vitaly Stepanov) and there was some German tv team investigating, and delivered a lot of damning evidence filmed with a hidden camera. 

The entire Russian sport had been undermined, and there was apparently systematic doping in place, sanctioned by the Russian goverment. 

Ah well, let John Oliver explain it.

 

And generally speaking anti doping agencies can only test for what they know of. So juiced athletes always have an advantage, I read somewhere that testing is usually 5 years behind on time. You know how long it took to finally prove that Lance Armstrong was doping. And that was a case everybody was clearly aware of, and the Tour de France had the reputation as a Pharmacy ad on wheels for years. Overall I would not be surprised if some of Usain Bolts samples would produce positive results were they retested in 10 years. 

[Sci-2]

I wasn't gonna watch anyway.

Hope that counts for something. 

[Iskaral Pust]

3 hours ago, Sci-2 said:

I wasn't gonna watch anyway.

Hope that counts for something. 

Solidarity, brother!