++ I wrote this in an airport while it was still relevant but then couldn’t get wireless access to post. ++
Personally, I just can’t bring myself to care about sports in general, but the olympics specifically. I mean, it’s certainly impressive that a fucking dolphin disguised as a man won 8 gold medals but I don’t think it’s really worth more than a passing nod of recognition. I’m sure this is an unpopular opinion but usually the ceaseless pandering commercialism of the olympics is just the regular tedium of televised spectator sports on overdrive. Today at the airport I saw a headline that a famous chinese runner hurt himself and that he will now lose millions worth of endorsements.
First, the idea of a celebrity endorsement is a goddamn psychological trick employed by advertising hacks. Companies that use it should be shunned. It is of zero bearing on the quality of the product that the world curling champion likes the new brand of swiffers. And anyone seeing it should know that any meathead would endorse anything for a million dollars. That this transparent fraud is somehow seen as persuasive is deeply troubling to me.
Second, the corruption of pure sport for “endorsements” is disturbing. Whatever, I could rant about this for a while.
///That is all
I hafta say, I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree. It’s so fucking annoying how people get all hyped up over this bullshit year after year. I mean, I know, I know, it’s a goddamn TRADITION. But there’s nothing more important than this? And does it really bring countries together? I don’t know. Some pretty unsportsmanlike conduct this year.
In the long run, all it *does* get is a passing nod.
I know swimming yearned for a superstar for a long time, I even heard “we’re the only sport that still isn’t sponsored” when I was a kid. Why?
’cause the sponsorships drive kids to try the sport, making it a better sport.
please elaborate on the in the long run comment. Sponsored in the olympics? are there any sports that aren’t sponsored? and skeet shooting was sponsored before swimming? weird. or perhaps the hypercommodification of the olympics has employed itself that quickly.
i don’t get it either. and by ‘don’t get it’ i mean ‘don’t watch them, don’t care about watching them, can’t believe anyone i know watches them, and can’t really believe that so many people give a damn about anything related to them’.
thanks for mentioning your feelings
I agree with you, however, there’s some nostalgia associated with the olympics for me. I was raised by drug dealers, and when I watched th olympics when I was younger, I felt like I could accomplish my dreams some day even though the world around me was a shithole…. and I felt that in my heart again as I watched the olympics this year. Some children around the world were feeling like they can accomplish their dreams, and it’s worth it to me.
i was very unpopular the summer of 1996 because i was interning in DC, the olympics were in Atlanta, and in DC going to bars and watching the olympics after work with everyone from your office was like…MANDATORY. and i hate the olympics for all the reasons you mentioned, i hated that every single night everyone was just going to sit and drink beer and watch the olympics for hours and hours. i spent a lot of time at museums alone that summer.
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