SeedSing is proud to offer voices from all over the globe. Today we present a guest post from Olympic enthusiast and top notch idea man Jon C. Get your ideas heard by writing for SeedSing
I love the Olympics. I very clearly remember watching the primetime coverage with my parents when I was a young child. I remember Carl Lewis sprinting and jumping to 9 gold medals, Eddie the Eagle plunging down the 90-meter ski jump at 60 mph and sticking the landing, and Michael Johnson wearing his golden shoes to the 200 and 400 meter gold medals. Even today I watch about 16 hours of coverage each day during the Olympic fortnight.
As one of the biggest fans of the Olympics, I believe I’ve earned the right to speak out on my biggest criticism of the world’s greatest sporting event. The Olympics should only include sports where winning the gold medal is the pinnacle of the sport. Compare the Wikipedia pages of Andre Agassi and Michael Phelps. Agassi’s page prominently lists his Grand Slam record, then other tournaments, and the last entry is his gold medal win in singles. Michael Phelps’s page prominently displays his Olympic record before all the other championships. Did you know Roger Federer has an Olympic gold medal in doubles? No, you didn’t, because nobody cares. The Olympics is cheapened by the inclusion of sports where the Olympics just becomes an optional part of the summer circuit. This is evident by the number of professional golfers that decided to skip the Olympics with the cop-out over concerns about the Zika virus.
The inclusion of a sport to the Olympics should be based on the following simple poll question to the competitors: What international competition would you most prefer to win? Professional soccer players would prefer to win the World Cup, tennis players Wimbledon or the other majors, and for golfers the Masters or British Open, but far down on the list is the Olympics. I include the phrase “international competition” because the NBA Championships and the Stanley Cup present a gray area where athletes from around the world would pick a national championship as the preferred event. Hockey is an iconic Olympic event and must be included. International interest and participation in the NBA has made Olympic basketball a staple.
The Olympics are for athletes that dedicate themselves to sports that are interesting to watch once every four years. I get really excited about watching bobsled, rowing, and weightlifting, but that enthusiasm can’t be maintained year after year. That’s what is so great about the Olympics; it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome. After watching 2 days of bobsled, the amount of time it takes for me to be excited to watch it again is about four years. The Olympics are also for quirky sports like handball, which I can only imagine was invented by a bored Danish gym teacher that had a couple lacrosse goals, a volleyball and came up with a game where no one except the goalie can be inside the basketball three point line. But the games are fun and close-scoring, and it doesn’t take long before you start yelling at your TV, “Feed the pivot, feed the pivot!”
The Olympic games don’t need superstars like Rory McIlroy or Serena Williams to make it relevant, the Olympics makes its own superstars like Usain Bolt. Serena gets to shine four times a year. Over the next two weeks lets focus on the athletes that only get to shine once every four years.
Jon C
About the Author:
Jon C. used to be cool and drive a V8 Audi. Now he drives a mini-van and is not cool.
