The national obsession over Olympic Medals is in full swing these days. I imagine there is quite a bit of hand wringing over the fact that a few days in and we still have zero.
My disdain for the Olympics has not diminished over the years and I find the hand-wringing over which athletes to sponsor and which to cut loose very distasteful. The news media and public don't care about the people trying their hardest to win (for the most part), they care about when the next medal is coming so we can collectively stroke our national pride and pretend that we matter on the national stage, and that winning at the Olympics means something tangible.
And once this two week event is over 99% of those Canadian athletes that bled and sweat and strained for our patriotism orgasm will go back to being nameless and faceless in whatever town they came from, used and forgotten by the national psyche.
Disgusting really.
1 comment:
Cause you don't sound bitter or anything! Yeesh! You make me sound positively sunny!
I think if you look outside the media you'll find a lot of people who watch the games for far more pure reasons than you're giving them credit for - some people, believe it or not, enjoy watching people compete in sports.
Then there are those who like the stories behind the athletes - so many of the Olympians come from such modest backgrounds that it's amazing they ever reached the level they're at now.... and sometimes the level of sacrifice they story contains gives you a glimpse into the people themselves.
Sure, the media tries to whip Canadians into a frenzy over the medal count every year, but to pretend that all Canadians care about is the raw numbers is to be turning a blind eye to the silent majority.
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