THE OLYMPICS

Aug 21, 2008 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The Olympics are winding down. It has without any doubt been one of the better Olympics that we have seen.

A great deal of tourists have gone to China for this super-event, but millions more are glued to the TV screens to watch the spectacle unfold.

And what a spectacle it has been. Great entertainment provided by super performances, the likes of which will take some effort to surpass.

I have watched most of what has been telecast of the Olympics. It is so good to be living in this age when we can sit in our living rooms and get such quality coverage of the world’s best athletes on show.

The Olympics is the world’s greatest sporting spectacle, an event that shows just how great the human spirit is and the incredible limits to which human endurance and performance can be pushed.

It almost brings tears to my eyes witnessing the breathtaking performances which have been turned out in Beijing.

And for these games, the persons who have clearly outdone all others have been Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt. They are simply phenomenal.

Phelps surpassed the record set by Mark Spitz (7 gold medals at a single Olympics) and became one of the greatest Olympians ever.

No less amazing is the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, who devoured the field in the 100 metres sprint, setting a world record, and then replicated the feat in stunning style yesterday in the 200 metres.

This Jamaican superstar broke his own world record in the shorter distance, easing up at the line. He too, is something else.

I have always expected to see a tall athlete dominate the sprint events. Swimming seems no different.
In both Phelps and Bolt, physiology plays an important part in their success.

This is something that all countries will have to pay attention to as they prepare their wards for future Olympics.

It is not just enough anymore to have ability. To get to the level that the world’s top athletes are reaching has to involve a combination, as has been said in the media, of physiology, training and technology.

Natural ability has long not been good enough to be a world champion, unless of course we are speaking about cricket which is not an Olympic sport.

I am glad that it is not. I am vigorously opposed to professional athletes taking part in the Olympics. I accept that there will be those athletes that will attract large sponsorship deals but I am opposed to professionals – persons who are paid to participate in sports – taking part in the Olympics.

I consider it a violation of the Olympic spirit when professionals are allowed in to take part in the games in the disciplines of football, tennis and basketball.

I do not think this should have happened. I think it denies lesser athletes the opportunity that they should have to compete and win Olympic glory.

As such, I never look at basketball, football and tennis – during this and previous Olympics. I have no interest in any Dream Team or any Redeem Team.

I do not believe that now that these professional athletes have tasted Olympic glory that we will ever return to the time when the Olympics was an amateur competition.

I am not original in this criticism. It was made years ago, by Cuban President Fidel Castro. In fact, it is bitterly tragic that while professional athletes are increasingly invading the games, baseball, long an Olympic sport, will not be on the agenda for the 2012 Olympics.

I would hate to see professional boxing join the Olympic retinue. I would not like to live to see the day when cricket joins the fray because it would mean that the sports premier competition, Cricket World Cup, would have to give way to the Olympics. It would not just be right. Nor would I think it should.

I hope that when these games are over that it will be remembered though for not just those that outdid all that was done before, those that won medals.

I hope that in all games it will be remembered for bringing the world together, to demonstrate that despite the differences in the world, we can have, through sports and competition, a single event that uplifts the human spirit and shows just how superior a species we really are.